The Immortal Void
by TheRustBladeAssassinXX
Summary: Warfang is at peace. The land of the dragons is no longer underneath Malefor's fearful rulership. But even when peace is at stake, the darkness will never vanish forever. Spyro and Cynder have only months before the Dragon City may fall at their most dangerous enemy... Themselves. / R
1. Chapter 1

**Hello! Ladies and Gentlemen, I present you to my latest write. I have been working on this for a couple of days and now I am ready to post it. You might be surprised to know that all of the other Spyro articles I've written I have actually taken down due to the fact they sucked and that they were rushed. I might now update from days to weeks or months but please, I give to you, **

**The Legend of **

**Spyro:**

**The Heinous Abyss**

**OoOoOoOoO**

**1**

The massive black dragon flew silently underneath the moon's shine, irately staring down into the faint world below. The abyss' gargantuan development and size opened up before him. The dragon locked his wings to peer down into the world that stumbled below him. With a sneer, he began his plummet towards the abyss' center, swerving past stone stalagmites and dipping faster down into the world.

As he landed on the floor of the abyss, he fixed his eyes on the massive throne before him. With a smirk, the black dragon walked towards it, eyeing the sleeping King, and with a lash of his claws, the King's bulk figure went limp, and the dragon laughed heartily in his success. He tossed the dragon off of the throne and placed himself greedily on the throne, a smirk planted on his black lips.

As the black of the abyss filled the dark dragon's gaze, he noticed that the paleness and the no light of the cave was very unnerving. With a withering glance at the abyss' top, he tossed the old King away from the throne he now sat upon, and smiled with happiness, at the success he could make in one entire night. But the black dragon's gaze was soon planted on the old king's bones.

There was a spirit, or that's at least what he thought, was floating, mostly hovering along the dead body of the old king. With a snarl, the dragon spirit glided over to the throne, and turned back to look at the former Lord. The spirit's slain tounge ruled the ability of no speech, and he finally made a low rumbling sound from his claws on the side of the throne, and turned back towards the king's corpse.

As the spirit faded, so did the thoughts of the black dragon. As he gulped in wonder, he failed to know the message of the angered spirit, whom had tried to yelp at him and warn him of something. As he glared at the floor with a scowl, his eyes soon turned to the abyss' top again. The new Tribe King looked down disdainfully. Being King would be great, but would a angered spirit ruin it?

As he tolk another swallow, he stepped off the throne and headed towards the former king's cabin and entered it, cautiously, each wooden plank groaning underneath his weight. With a grimace, the black dragon countinued to make his way through the wooden cabin, and noticed the ancient bed laying down on the pavement, it's curved edges crawling towards him.

The black dragon sat down on the side of the bed, his eyes gazing down in wonder. The hiding Tribe would need to get back into the world if they would once more be noticed. Knowing about the Dark Master's fall, that would lead the hiding tribe towards the land above the ground into the open once more, and with a grin, curled up on the bed and closed his pale olive eyes to wonder.

* * *

"... You all know that Malefor's army and his apes were very stunned to find out that the Purple Dragon, our savior, had managed to get passed Cynder, whom at that time was the Terror of the Skies. But his army was only getting worse. The Morvais Tribe went deeper into hiding, and Zanvior's Guard went to help the rebuilding of the city..."

Cyril's lessons were almost over, good news to the young dragons' ears. As he countinued, Cynder the dragon stared at the carpet with her claw, the teal color hardening in her emerald stare. She looked up to see Cyril tapping his claws against the scrolls from long ago, which were very majestic indeed. Spyro was beside her, and he was too, glancing at the teal carpet.

Two wind dragons were chuckling beside them, and the biggest one lowered his head to act as if he were listening once Cyril stopped his lesson to glare down to see whom was talking. Then the two burst back into laughter when Cyril turned back around, but Cyril hadn't gotten off the two so fast. With his claws clicking against the wooden stool beside him, he asked, "Vendall, Henves, do you have something you'd like to say to the class?"

The bigger one, Henves, looked up to see everyone's angered eyes peering down at him. With a grimace, Henves backed up and whispered, "N-no, of course not!"

Cyril growled at his interuppted lesson, "Then pay attention."

Vendall, the younger wind dragon, and Henves' best friend, chuckled at the disruption and smacked is friend. Henves' face burned.

Then there was another silence as Cyril looked down at the class. "You're lucky, Henves, because class is over." He turned to face the other dragons who were peering up at him. "Class dismissed."

The dragons cheered in happiness as they picked up their rabbit-skin satchels and headed through the wooden doors to the classrooms, and Ember fell into step beside Spyro and Cynder. The pink dragoness had possibly gotten into trouble, because she looked nervous when she arrived.

"What's wrong, Ember?" Spyro asked as the three exited the hallway and were walking down the stairs towards the ground level.

"Well, I got into trouble with Terrador," she replied.

"Oh." Spyro looked down at his feet irately and glanced back up at her.

"I need to serve his detention. I can only wonder what I'll do there!" Ember cried.

"How'd you get into trouble?" asked Cynder, suddenly.

"I knocked over one of his old 'ancient rubrics'," she replied, stubbornly.

Cynder laughed as she padded down the hallway and into the exiting doors, taking flight outside. The cool air whisped down her face, and Ember only shrank back. "Well, see you, Ember," Cynder chuckled as she tilted her body and flew back towards her department. Ember glared.

"Don't worry, Ember. I've still got your back. And-" Spyro was cut short once he realized a white dragon had stopped in front of him.

"Hey, Spyro!" the dragon yapped, twitching his tail blade and glancing at Ember, his wings strongly bracing the air. "Got a new girlfriend?"

"No!" Spyro growled. "And even if I did, I see you don't have one still, Grevil?"

The white dragon stopped and paused, then whipped around to look at Spyro rudely. "Don't talk to me like that!" he growled.

"Too bad," Spyro answered casually. "You've got yourself a problem."

That's when Ember piped in, flexing her claws and tail blade in an annoyed glance. "Stop your boyish bickering!" she snapped. "Besides, shouldn't you guys have any other problems?"

"No..." Spyro whispered. "We don't...But that doesn't make it right for you to butt in!" With a flick of his wings Spyro turned around to face the other dragon, whom was waiting with a huff.

"I thought you still had my back?" Ember spat at the purple dragon, but as usual, he didn't reply.

Ember rolled her eyes before flying away.

But Grevil and Spyro were still hovering above a building in Warfang, growling and swatting each other with devilish glares. "At least I _have_ a mate!" Spyro was growling, before throwing a tame paw at the white dragon.

"So?" Grevil hissed back, throwing him another paw. "Just because you can master all four common elements, doesn't mean you can master telekinesis, does it?"

Spyro snarled. "What does that have to do with anything?"

"It means you aren't special. And only special dragons can master telekinesis." Grevil waved his tail in front of Spyro and the purple dragon only growled before body-slamming the smaller white dragon, and the two of them toppled to the ground in an annoyed heap.

Grimacing in pain, Grevil spat, "What was that for?" With a grin, Spyro swatted the smaller dragon's face.

"For being stupid to your savior, of course." And with that, Spyro spread his wings and darted to the sky, leaving the telekiesis dragon alone of the pavement, other dragons surrounding him. The white dragon trembled in hate.

* * *

"Oh, hello Spyro," Baltimore greeted the purple dragon as he took a seat inside of the empty library. "What would you like me to get for you?"

"And ancient tomb, one written about the Ancient Malefor Wars." Spyro scratched himself, embarrassed.

"Why would you read about that? You always read about battle tactics." Baltimore put on a frown and looked at Spyro.

"You know...Homework," Spyro replied. "Can you show me where the Ancient Malefor Wars tombs are?"

"O-of course!" Baltimore smiled happily before waggling a claw towards a couple of shelves. "In between those shelves. Good luck, with homework, Spyro."

"Thanks," Spyro agreed with a grin as he padded over towards the bookshelves Baltimore had pointed to. The dusty tombs there were thick, probably all detailed information about the things they held inside them. Spyro scanned each of the shelves the librarian suggested, and noticed a thick tomb shining brilliantly on top of him. Spreading his wings to reach it, he placed his forepaws on the book and tugged it off.

The book fell with him, and he easily caught it again, and looked around for any other scrolls, books, or tombs there might be. With no success, Spyro peered down at the book's title, which was layered with dust. Reaching out a paw to swipe it away, he glanced down at the letters, and they read, _In the Dark Times of Malefor._ Maybe this was what he was searching for.

As he settled down on a table to read, he flipped the dusty tomb open to the first page - the table of contents. The words were barely big enough to see, but he was happy. He looked at the words carefully. And then he found out what he was looking for. In tiny letters, he read, _The Malefor Wars of Warfang and Avalar._ He had been sent to look for a much detail as he could for the Ancient Malefor Wars of Warfang. Would seeking out Avalar's old battles put on extra credit?

He looked down to the page, and read, _Page 386._ Turning the tomb's battered pages, Spyro looked at all of the detail inside of the tomb, of Malefor's history, childhood, and other information. He was impressed that they had so much collections and data on Malefor's battle weapons and skills. It even possessed the information that he mastered all four elements and fury power.

Spyro continued to look at the pages, and finally reached his destination. He smiled to himself once he reached page 386, and read all the contained information. He made detailed images of the dragons and dragonesses who had died in the battles, and all of the weapons they contained and the warriors they had and including the old war generals like General Vytig himself. He read on:

_Malefor's forces were too much to put on the city of Warfang, and the citizens were pushed back to their own gates. The apes were slamming their fists against the stone floors, and howling their horrible sounds. The Battle of Warfang wasn't going so well. Malefor hadn't come to his own battles, but he was keeping check. The general, Vytig, continued to scan for the fallen warrior, Yturr, with no success. _

_The battle ended when the general, Vytig, was ambushed and killed by a horde of apes when searching for the fallen warrior. Many dragons celebrated his death, and they elected a new general, General Fstorm, a brave, swift dragon with scales as black as night. The rest of the battles continued, with Malefor's army winning some and Warfang winning the others. But the war went on. _

Spyro finished the Battle of Warfang section, and moved on to Warfang's weapons.

_Claws - an easy battle weapon_

_Elements - whom all dragons contain _

_Teeth - an easy battle weapon_

_Club - Brought by the extinct Horse Clan_

_Daggers - Crafted by the Blacksmith_

_Swords - Brought by the Cheetah Village_

_Bow-and-Arrows - Brought by the Morvais Tribe _

Spyro read until his heart stopped beating. This was totally a good tomb to use, and he was glad he picked one with so much detail, not just a tomb that contained the battles and boring information of their generals, weapons, elements, and history. Picking up the tomb, Spyro paced over to Baltimore, whom was busy with another patient, and had been searching for Warfang's history. As he left, Spyro slapped the heavy tomb on the countertop.

"I'd like this one," Spyro said, cheerfully. "May I sheck it out for a while?"

Baltimore grinned. "As long as you need," he replied, waving a paw to Spyro as he left the library.

Spyro walked down the streets of Warfang, when he heard similar footsteps behind him. Turning curiously around, he couldn't see anything other than a ball of red pounce on him and pin him down. "Done it, finally!" the red object bragged.

"Don't boast, Flame," Spyro growled. "I need to study."

"Aww...Sucks for you, purple boy." Flame grinned. "My homework's all done, just reading a stupid essay from Volteer."

Spyro snorted before padding further away from the ignorant little dragon - more like hatchling, to Spyro's case.

"Doesn't matter," Flame added, "it still sucks for you."

Spyro snarled before edging away slowly. "Leave me alone, would you?"

"Nah," Flame growled. "I want to stay right here."

"Stay here as you please," Spyro spat, "just don't bother me."

"Fine then," the red dragon retorted, "you could've just said so..."

"Really?" Spyro asked.

Flamed nodded. "Like the clap."

Spyro smirked. "In that case, don't bother me ever again."

"No!" Flame growled. "I'm leaving!"

Spyro glanced at the red dragon as he turned down the corrider and was gone. Returning to the department house that he shared with Cynder, he took to flight and left the street to return to the apartment room. Gliding along the street, he angled his body to the right to swoop down to the department house.

He landed on the apartment's porch, and walked right into the room to see Cynder lying on the bed, reading an Ancient Malefor Wars tomb as well. She looked up at him, and a smile was planted on her black lips. "Oh, Spyro," she murmured, dropping her tomb to embrace him, but she shrugged her off and scowled, thinking about last night when the two had argued.

"Cynder," he whispered, as he pushed her on the bed. "Keep reading. I'll read with you. I just got this awesome tomb from Baltimore. If you want to share, go right ahead." He placed his paws on the tomb and pushed it over. "Take a look." Grinning, he watched as she looked at the tomb, interested.

"This is...Wow..." She looked at every page. "So much information...And this was on the shelves? Books like this are usually reserved for tourists or for money, even to rent! All this information about Malefor's childhood and history." She looked up at Spyro. "Did you ask him for this?"

Spyro looked dumbfounded at her words. "Yes," he replied. "But he didn't take it from the back-shelves. It was right with the others, i-in a corner."

Cynder beamed. "Well, good-job finding this one," she praised.

Spyro beamed back at her. "Thank you." Cynder only nodded before pushing the book backwards for him to glance at.

Spyro carefully took the offering and slid backwards to a chair at the other end of the apartment room. He sat down and flipped the pages of the tomb.

Cynder giggled softly when she heard a page of Spyro's tomb tear. The purple dragon groaned when he realized he would have to pay for the torn page. He just heavily pressed on and looked at all of the tiny words on each page. He turned to a page that involved some of Malefor's childhood friends. His relatives were all very evil dragons and dragonesses. He took a closer look at the page.

_Howlm - Navy dragon with pale yellow eyes and a heart as black as obsidian. He was born by two wind dragons, which were each a different shade of color. Both of them trained their son to be an evil outlaw. In his teenage years, he met Malefor, and respected the rare purple dragon by teaming up with him. Malefor and Howlm where the beginning of "the group", another name for Malefor's team. _

_Vernu - Black dragoness with red eyes and three horns on her head. Her parents were smoke dragons, which were both very old in age. The older her parents got, the stricter they were. Her parents' strictness turned the once-kind angel into a red-eyed devil. She was the second member of "the group" and turned out to have a small crush on the purple dragon, Malefor, before she died saving him. _

_Situs - Red dragon with green eyes and a small, delicate smile. His greediness of laughter and making everyone's lives miserable, Situs decided to pick on his younger brother at a young age. The acts continued, even in teenage years, and every time he pulled a prank, it was worse than the one before. He at first envied Malefor for his popularity, and pulled a prank on him, and Malefor snapped at him, causing Situs to apologize and be the third member of "the group."_

_Huglur - Dark green dragon with orange eyes. His parents were both ice dragons, which were known for their blue scales. But the green-eyed dragon knew he was different. He fled his family, and moved inside of the school. Around age twenty, he met Malefor at his college and immediately became his friend. He was one of the witnesses of Situs' rude accidently he pulled on Malefor when he envied him. That's when he became "the group's" fourth member._

_Ammicus - Yellow dragoness with blue eyes. Her parents were both electricity dragons, but they treated her kindly, giving her whatever she wanted. She was kind, before getting bullied at school by two earth dragons Hitz and Litz. Soon, she was letting all her anger out on everyone around her, but she stopped when she laid eyes on Malefor and "the group" as they walked down the hallway of the college. She was the fifth and final member of "the group."_

All of this history bored Spyro. It was probably the acts of Malefor's first friend, Howlm, that made him so easy. But everyone inside of "the group" was alive except Huglur and Vernu. The last three dragons were probably mourning over their lost friend. Spyro set the tomb down on his bookshelf, and the sun was leaving his eyes. Cynder looked up to him on the bed.

"What is it?" she asked, moving over to him more comfortably.

"Oh...I read about Malefor's teenage friends," Spyro replied.

Cynder put a paw over her mouth. "Where they evil?"

"All of them." Spyro sighed.

"Don't be upset, Spyro," Cynder said. "His friends made him evil."

Spyro looked up. "It was either Howlm of his trickster friend..."

Cynder sighed. Pulling a glass of tea from over the countertop she led Spyro back to the bed. "Well, we can't stop Malefor...Actually, we did." With a laugh, she laid down in the bed as well, but the purple dragon didn't seem at all into sleeping with his mate beside him. She watched him get from the bed and open the doors to the porch. Cynder looked up, shocked.

"I'm going to the lake..." Spyro whispered. "Goodbye, Cynder."

"Wait," Cynder asked. "Can't I come?"

Spyro let out a low chuckle. "I was actually hoping you'd ask."

Cynder followed the chuckle with her soft giggle. Spyro spread his golden wings and took flight. Cynder followed him. As he flew, Spyro had a couple of thoughts in his head. Should he go and find the friends of Malefor, so they could tell him about his past, giving him more information than the book did? But his friends were evil dragons, a couple hundred years old, probably mature by then.

Spyro watched Cynder behind him, flapping her delicate wings softly. Dreamily, he fell into flight beside her, and could see a smile pulled onto her lips in wonder. She giggled, letting her eyelids flicker softly, and peered up to look at the purple dragon, who was looking at her as well. With a sigh of relief, the two of them flew passed the trees in wonder, and finally flew down towards the lake.

The two of them were speechless at the sight. The now-rising moon was now high overhead, and it danced on the water's surface. The stars were little twirling beauties beside it, making the sight quite dreamy as the night before had been, other than when the two had argued. Spyro watched Cynder as she padded along the banks, raising her velvet wings and smiling at the purple dragon beside her.

The two still said nothing, and Spyro didn't want the silence to break. Cynder dipped her tail blade into the cool water of the lake, and giggled softly to herself at the freezing tempterature. Her gleaming emerald eyes glanced down into the water, and she looked up towards the moon, to see where it really was, and it was there, dancing up in the sky and waving to all of the dragons below.

The ravishing sight shook their scales with softness. Spyro's exquisite gaze rumbled Cynder's soft heart. The silence of the rising moon danced with her brain, until it swirling in her paws and led her up to the sky as well. But she wouldn't go alone. Spyro would always be up there with her, and all of the peace in the night would be joyful, other than the battles back down in this world.

Spyro could see Cynder there, bathed in the moonlight. The world seemed to light up around her, and he walked up to nuzzled her leniently. The moon was only a short way in the sky. Spyro could hear Cynder's sighs in pleasure at the nuzzle, and she broke away to spread her wings and soar lightly overhead of the lake, skimming the water and chuckling softly. Spyro went to join her.

Then Cynder broke the silence, to Spyro's dismay. He could hear her voice run overhead of the water, and sinking into the skull, his veins, his brain. The echoes of her beautiful tones thudded against his eardrums, wanting her to speak more, in such a light way she wouldn't ruin any moments. But her voice was so lenient that he knew she hadn't meant to ruin their moment at the lake.

"Spyro...I see someone in the bushes..." He noticed her point irritably to a bush, her gaze irate.

"It's fine, Cynder. Maybe it's a bug?" he asked her, looking towards the direction she pointed.

"No, Spyro...Someone's there. A bug or not, I feel watched," Cynder whispered.

"I'll check it out," Spyro offered.

He glided over to the bush, and looked into it. There seemed to be nothing there. But Cynder was used to the darkness, so whenever she saw something nearby he didn't criticize her for what she appeared to be seeing. Departing the leaves, he saw something whirl by his head and face him. There was a gasp from Spyro and a single, musical word escaped his lips.

"Sparx!"

The dragonfly buzzed in the air around them. "Hey, Spyro, old buddy!"

Cynder watched the two from her angle, and flew down beside the two of them. "Where were you, Sparx?"

"Oh...My usual dragonfly business, of course!" Sparx answered politely.

"Such as?" Cynder pestered.

"Watching you guys." Sparx chuckled.

"Sparx..." Spyro mumbled, ungratefully.

"Hey, it's getting dark... How about we go to that cave of yours and catch a wink?" Spark suggested, brightly.

"Fine," Spyro remarked, stretching his wings out to feel the breeze rolling over him.

* * *

The morning light woke Spyro.

But Sparx slept on. Getting to his feet, Spyro walked down the down the side of his bed, and nudged Cynder awake. The dragoness' eyes peered open, and her emerald gave fixed on Spyro.

"What is it?" she asked, drowsily.

"Class starts in fifteen minutes," he warned her. "And we have to start writing our essay tommorow about the Ancient Malefor Wars."

Cynder nodded her head, and clumsily got to her feet.

She followed Spyro down the hallway, and adjusted her eyes to the light that swelled before her as she walked into the sunlight.

Cynder was beginning to fall behind, but he pushed her ahead and she limped through the streets of Warfang. They finally turned towards the class building, and were climbing the steep stairs of the tower. They walked into Cyril's room, and sat down on the teal carpet, watching as other dragons had entered the room.

An electricity dragoness, Talloness, watched the two sleepy dragons. "What got you two fixed?" she snapped.

"Slept late," grumbled Cynder, plopping onto the teal carpet.

"Well," Talloness mumbled, "here comes another one of Cyril's boring history lessons."

"Yeah..." Cynder watched Spyro, as he rolled his toes around, waiting for the lesson to begin. "Did you start your lesson on the Malefor Wars?"

"No... There were no more books or scrolls left in the library. Baltimore told me Spyro got the best Malefor tomb." Talloness looked down.

"Yes, he did," Cynder agreed. "I got one of the plain ones."

"Better than none," Talloness spat. "Like me."

"Ugh, stop bawling about it." Cynder sat up straighted and angled her body away from the annoyed dragoness.

Ember walked in, and she was stiff with tiredness and fear. It was probably her detention, Cynder thought as the pink dragoness trotted into the room and took a seat on the teal carpet.

Cynder scooted next to the tired dragoness. "What did Terrador make you _do?_" she asked.

Ember looked tired - more than ever. "Carry messages around the woods late at night. The worse detention _yet!_"

Cyril had walked in once she said this. "Ember, class is about to begin," he muttered with a sigh. "Let's get this day through."

He was clutching an old scroll, which he had picked up from Baltimore at the library. He smiled pleasently as he read the scroll aloud. It was about the ancient Ice Dragon Ansestors.

"...The Ancient Ice Dragon Ansestors were loyal warriors to the Ice Kingdoms, far before Warfang or the Dark Master. They were used to freeze their rivals, the Ancient Fire Dragon Ansestors. Some of these Ice Dragons' hatchlings are now today the father's of some of the ice dragons in Zanvior's Guard, such as helping the rebuilding of the Mast Collas, which you should know is the Dragon main tower."

"These fierce, noble dragons were one of my great-great-grandfathers. And I'm sure that you to, Muribios, that your great-great-great-grandfather was one of them as well. You have their blood, their spirit. These noble dragons were a great help in the war of Kazbek, the High Lord. Their help of this war owned them peace in the the Ancient Fire Dragon Ansestors' village."

"One of these noble dragons, named Vtyll, was a curious soul, indeed. He went out on a long voyage to see the other dragon realms, such as the Ancient Earth Dragon Ansestors or the Ancient Electricity Dragon Ansestors. This different dragon indeed surprised the two breeds, and they immediately asked Vtyll who he was and even where he had come from. He of course, replied that he was a ice dragon."

"The villages were fascinated by the best powers of the amazing ice dragons, and especially by Vtyll, he was so great and powerful at his element. He formed ice dragons inside of his ice powers, and they were stunned, feeding him and giving him the goods of his life. The more fascinated village were the earth dragons, for they had never heard of anything quite like ice..."

* * *

The bored dragons were glad once their time with Cyril was over, and they were moving on to Terrador's battle classroom. Their hopes were now high. Spyro noticed Flame and Vendall moving about the battle tower.

"Listen up!" Terrador called, and immediately everyone fell silent. "Today you will pick a partner, and learn the new kind of battle move, which is known as Mettalguis, today."

Spyro and Cynder paired, Flame and Vendall paired, Ember and Talloness paired, and several other dragons paired.

"Now, you will begin by spreading out your wings and taking to the sky. While in the air, you and your buddy will try to avoid each other elements a paw swipes. Whoever strikes their enemy first, will be able to do the Mettalguis, and to do that you must take those beautiful horns and slam them into your opponent's chest, stunning them, and take care of the rest with your element or your tail blade. On my mark! Ready, set, mark!"

The pairs rose to the sky, Spyro and Cynder more slowly than the others, who were already dodging their opponent's blows. Terrador noticed the two's falter and shouted, "Cynder, Spyro - Faster, guys." The two barley picked up their pace. Spyro swung first, and he barely skimmed Cynder's arm, but not fast enough to stun her and enabling him to repeat the Mettalguis.

Cynder was much faster - her strike to the head stunned Spyro, and he faltered back immediately, glaring at her. She began to twist, until her horns collided with Spyro's chest, and he swooped backwards and collapsed against the wall. Cynder brought out her tail blade and whacked Spyro lightly. She didn't know whether her tail or their collision had made him grumble so uncomfortably.

However, there were more grumbles in the room, when Cynder turned around to see Ember laying in a pool of blood. Flame took one glance and yelled.

"Ember!"

The dragoness did not move.

**How did you guys think of the first chapter? Was it good or bad? It was actually the longest first chapter I've ever made, so... What's up? Well, in a day or two, since it's Spring Break, I will be able to update in about a day to a week. So happy reading! :) I hope you enjoyed the first chapter!**

**Stick around for the second chapter!**


	2. Chapter 2

**Hey, guys! Next chapter is up! I hope I didn't make you wait too long! DX Anyway, I hope that you will enjoy this chapter! :) Full of action, and I hope it will longer than the other chapter, anyway. First review in a first six hours? That's unusual for me. And if you're wondering why Ember's in a pool of blood, find out in this chapter!**

**2**

Spyro looked down at the dragoness. What had happened to her? Cynder looked as shocked as he did, but he was still recovering from her tail blade blow. Swooping over to her friend, Cynder's emerald stare fixed on the wound. "Who did this?" she snarled.

"I didn't mean to..." Talloness whimpered from the corner, slouching.

"You did this?" Flame growled, staring hardly.

"I told you...I didn't mean to!" Talloness' shriek filled their ears.

"How could it have been this bad on accident!" Spyro now spoke.

Terrador pushed his way into the fighting dragons and dragonesses and growled, "That's enough. Talloness, you're going to speak with me after class. No one was supposed to be harmed in this lesson, today. Ember's falter is now my responsibility. Class continue!"

Spyro and Cynder hovered to their position, Spyro taking the lead. He couldn't believe Ember was hurt. The spirited-dragoness was never hurt. Shaking his head as if to clear a trance, Spyro continued with the lesson.

Cynder swatted Spyro, and Spyro smacked Cynder, the lesson was ever so long. Spyro's breaths were no harder and faster, and he looked up at the day sky. Classes were almost over, and he was going to have to turn in the essay of the Malefor Wars soon. Spyro was immediately happy, because tommorow was the weekend, and that meant no classes. He would have all weekend to work.

"Class dismissed!" Terrador cried.

The young dragons departed and went for the room and padded swiftly down the hallway. Talloness was not far behind Spyro and Cynder, and she looked ashamed. As if she didn't know what happened...? Spyro shook his head and continued forward, a bit faster. Cynder noticed the change in pace and she crept up beside him. "Spyro is there something wrong?" she questioned.

"No..." Spyro glared at his feet. He couldn't lie, especially not to Cynder.

"Tell me the truth," Cynder demanded, blandly.

"Fine. Talloness looked like she didn't know what happened." Spyro tilted his head to look at Cynder.

"Of course she did," Cynder responded. "She was just shocked of what she did to Ember."

Spyro looked at her, with a quick glint of suspicion. "Are you sure?"

"Positive," Cynder replied, casually.

"Oh..." Maybe Cynder was right.

* * *

Spyro stared at the stars that morning. The watery look in their dazzling eyes made him want to dance with the beat. Cynder was sleeping beside him peacefully, rolling around in the bed. Spyro was in no mood to sleep, and he felt bad about what happened as it was. He waved Cynder a small "goodbye" and lifted off towards the clouds, leaving the only world he ever knew behind him.

The air whipped in his face, and he hovered quickly over the treetops, whistling with the wind. The lakes and waterpools below him were fading, and he was now flying over trees and forests. The areas were quite beautiful, much better than that of Warfang. The Warfang terrain was dark and plain, no sigh of the bittersweet color of green at all. The walls were all stone and clay.

The lakes shimmered on the ground, the moon's reflection making them very beautiful, but Spyro knew where their actual moon was - in the sky, looking more peaceful than ever. A small flight without Cynder wouldn't hurt her, and it wouldn't hurt him, either. He soared over the terrain, and flapped his wings, leinently. The night was better than day, for sure. But he wanted some time away from the Dragon City, only _one night._

Spyro flapped his golden wings, and angled his body to he ground in a plummet. The air whizzed by his scales, and he felt the air's soft breeze wrap him in it's grip. Spyro's fall made him feel more alive than ever, and being in the air that night made him feel good. But maybe a small night without Cynder wouldn't hurt. He hurled around the night breeze and sighed. The night felt good.

He spread his wings out as he was about to hit the floor. The ground beneath him trembled and his weight smashed the grass. The calm night rumbled, and Spyro looked up, to see a huge cave at the end of the few trees he noticed. Running over and gliding some of the way, Spyro went to have a look in the cave to investigate if there were any remains of something in there.

There was nothing. The ground was freezing inside of the cave. Glancing at the walls, he padded up to the further part of the cave. And what he saw was indeed ravishing. There was crystal stalagmites hanging from the ceiling and from the ground. They were everywhere! With a grin, Spyro spread his wings and flew through the silent cave, his wings making no absolute sound at all.

The back on the cave was not ravishing, but still quite nice. He glided through the cave, avoiding stalagmites that were forming everywhere. His smile widened as he flapped through the cave, his echoes sending shivers throughout him. This was indeed a good night flight, and there was at least green in this cave. There could have been a city down here if it had been discovered before.

Spyro found some dry ground to stick his feet onto, and he immediately did, his wings were drooping in tiredness and his head slouched. But he knew he would have to return next to Cynder that day. She would worry. He always waked up after she did, and she would get suspicious if he said he actually woke up _before_ she did. Cynder knew him too much, just like Sparx.

There was a trembling, and Spyro looked up to see a massive dragon standing there, scales as orange as the sun. Spyro couldn't find the words to say, so he asked, "A-are you Situs?"

The orange dragon snorted. "So what if I am? What will you do? How have you heard of that name?" His scaly eye ridge lifted and he made a great look of concern. "If I were you I'd rather not mess with Situs. If I were him, anyway. But that's for me to know and you to find out." The orange dragon padded around the cave. "So what do you want? I'm not Situs, so please..."

"Wow! You're Situs!" Spyro yelped. "Malefor's friend!" The orange dragon grimaced at the words and looked down at the purple dragon.

"I'm not Situs...Not anymore." He flopped down. "Situs was young and playful...I'm weak and pathetic. All I can do is mourn over Malefor's body. I am no longer a trickster. I am a kind old dragon. I tell myths to the young ones when they stray here...You're the one that killed Malefor...Oh, I wish to see his face once more!" The orange dragon weeped silently, at Spyro's legs.

"Tell me about Malefor...I want to learn." Spyro sat up straighter. Situs eyed him, warily. "Please tell me."

Situs barked back abruptly, "You killed my best friend. I will never tell anyone about him...No matter what dragon it is. You killed him...Oh yes...You killed Malefor. You should know about him." With that the orange dragon flopped on his other side and lowered his head down to the floor of the cave. "Leave me in peace."

"Oh...I thought you said you were a caring old dragon. If you were kind, you would've told me. Besides, I suggest you let all of the memories out, it will help you on your journey. Remembering your times with your group? I'd like to hear it." Spyro watched as the orange dragon turned to stare at him, hard green eyes fixed. Spyro was hopeful that it would be a yes.

"I suppose...They were great memories. Now they're nightmares. I miss that friend." Situs looked down.

"Don't be sad. It'll make you depressed in your story."

Situs' green eyes lit up. "And who said I would tell you?" he growled.

"I thought-"

"Exactly! You _thought_. You purple dragons don't know everything."

"You're right! I don't know everything...That's why I came to learn," Spyro whimpered, unhappily.

Situs thought for a moment. Then he looked down at Spyro, who's purple eyes gleamed with sadness. Situs remembered that was how Malefor's face looked when he was in college and got in trouble. It was worth telling him the story of a lifetime.

"It's long... So I suggest you snuggle in."

"Wait...Can I come tommorow? I can't _snuggle in_ because I'll fall asleep, and my mate won't know that I'm gone. She'll be worried tommorow. I never wake before she does." Spyro put on a begging look and glanced at Situs, who's green eyes flared up at once.

"Fine...I'll tell you the real start of the story..."

"The autumn breeze was fine, the pine needles of the woods were hastening in the breeze. The soft winds of the wild scraped the scales of every dragon. It was a perfect day to go to school and pull a prank on a dragon relaxing in the breeze. I was very young. I was looking for a dragoness to pull this great new plan on. An unexpecting dragoness was the perfect one to tease. So I slunk along the bushes of the school and waited for an unknowing dragoness to pass by me. It was a while before one actually did. I flung a barrell of lava all over her scales. She screamed, 'Situs! No! You bastard!' And howled away into the infirmary."

"The Principal wasn't to happy with my actions, at least I don't think she was. She gave me a stern look and murmured, 'Debois has to go to the infirmary at the dragon city, she is in a horrible state. What would you do if that was you that happened to?' As usual I didn't listen. Hey, I was only young. Not listening to what the Principal said, I went to see if that new purple dragon, Malefor, liked pranks or not. So I grabbed a bucket of glowworm dung, and waited on the staircase for my plan of action. Some of the dragons new I had a prank going on, because they slunk away from me. The purple dragon was entering the building."

"I flung the glowworm dung, but it didn't land where I supposed it would. The glowworm dung was hurling back up towards me. With a shriek and a 'Hey!' I flung myself down the staircase and tumbled into the wall. I creaked an afraid eye open to see an upside-down version of the towering Malefor, two other dragons standing beside him, one was a girl, ones was a boy. I cowered at the three. Malefor snapped, 'Would you like to try that again?' I backed away, knowing I was no match for the rare species. 'Good.' And with that, he turned away, both of the dragons that were following him snarling at me, knowing my presence."

"So I decided about what happened when I got home. The bucket of glowworm dung was actually coming back up the stairs. I was scared, so I didn't eat much at dinnertime. My father asked, 'Situs, what's wrong? I've never seen you like this.' I was glad of my father's concern, and my mother looked worried. She was still busy eating her porkchops to say anything, other than to listen. 'Oh!' I yelped. 'There's a purple dragon at school named Malefor!I was pulling a prank on him, but it somehow turned on me and came over my way! It didn't get me, but the dragon said, Would you try that again, and left me on the staircase!'"

"My father said 'Aww...' And went back with his daily meal. Not too concerned, I guess, but bothered by the fact they left me there. Finishing a mouthful of porkchops, my mother said, 'Did you tell the Principal?' And I said, 'No, I'm not a tattletale.' My mother glowered at me for a couple of moments, before turning back to her dinner. She was obsessed with the stuff! My father had finished eating, and was going away. I went upstairs to my bedroom and slept peacefully that night. I thought about my incident and decided to apologize, that creep liked it or not..."

Spyro looked at the orange dragon as he spoke. But more important things came on his mind. Spyro swatted the dragon's face, and said, "I have to go...I'll be here tommorow." And with that, left the cave of the ancient Situs.

The flight home made Spyro's wings cripple and falter. He was so tired, he almost fell asleep midflight. Luckily, he didn't, and made it home fast enough to fall in asleep like a baby.

* * *

Cynder nudged the purple dragon awake. He looked more tired than usual. Cynder prodded him more sternly. But Spyro only stirred and grumbled a bit. Cynder honked, and it immediately aroused the purple dragon. "Alright," he growled at her, slipping off the bed and walking towards the door.

"Woah...Spyro, are you alright?" Cynder asked with worry.

"Of course...I've stayed up later with Flame last night." Spyro yawned.

Cynder looked up. "The Friday Man-nights?" Spyro nodded. "Oh..."

So Spyro and Cynder walked down the hallways. They were silent at first, not muttering a single word, no sounds escaping them other than their feet clopping down the hall. Cynder gazed up at Spyro. He seemed to be so fixed, and unrested. What had happened at the Man-nights? But instead of Man-nights, Spyro and Flame cancelled it because Flame wanted to check in with Ember.

"So...How're things going? Is Ember better? I heard you visited her after class." Spyro walked down silently.

"Oh...She'll live..." But there was something else Cynder didn't say.

"Cynder? Is she okay?" Spyro asked.

"Yes... But it was a fake." Cynder murmured the words.

"A fake?" Spyro growled.

"Yes, Ember faked the whole thing. It was red dye," Cynder replied casually.

"Oh..." Spyro held his head low. He didn't know Ember had faked it. She looked pretty hurt! And that was why Talloness hadn't known what happened! Probably. Maybe she was still in shock? The purple dragon watched his black mate as they padded through the hallways and into the streets.

Spyro broke their silence. "What're you planning to do with me today?"

Cynder thought. "Dinner?"

Spyro nodded in agreement. "Dinner is fine," he whispered.

Cynder and Spyro now walked wordlessly down the streets, that were alive with dragons and hatchlings. The stores that lined to city glistened with silverware, and goods to buy. But there seemed to be a huge crowd at the end of one of the streets Spyro and Cynder walked on.

"What's going on?" Cynder asked.

Then the thought hit Spyro like a brick to a hamster. "It's trading day! I forgot!" Then he spread his wings and took off, Cynder coolly flying up after him. "I need to get my goods," he whispered to her. "Look at how much Trading Aisles there are! You have to grab your stuff to!"

Spyro looked down at the valley that was alive with trading goods. They couldn't miss it! "C'mon Cynder. We can trade all day, and eat dinner!" Then he bolted off towards their building at the department house, and there seemed to be no one standing in the hallways other than the Entrance Dragoness and the Service Men. With Cynder hard on his heels, he trampled through the stairs and whooshed down the hallway.

Slamming their door open, the purple dragon leapt for a bag of goods at the bottom of the bed. Cynder too, had collected hers from inside of a secret cabinet that she made at the side of the bed. Spyro gave her a nod, before the two leapt out of the room, locking it with the key, and stumbled down the staircase. The Entrance Dragoness looked up at the commotion and growled threateningly at the disturbance.

Spyro and Cynder opened their wings large to catch to the breeze. The air rippled their scales as the two took off. With a laugh, Spyro managed a ravishing corkscrew, and continued on his flight to the main central. The busy line of dragons hungrily invited Spyro and Cynder in to a good trading day. Cynder immediately went to the jewellery shops, while Spyro searched for polished armor and jewels.

Spyro lost Cynder while he was searching for goods. But he knew that she was alright. Besides, at times like this, she was always hanging out with a dragoness or a couple of good friends and then they would all go out together and have this big shopping trail. The idea of a large group trading would usually send a shiver down the purple dragon's spine. With a snort, he continued walking down the aisles for any sigh of an armory booth.

With no success, Spyro noticed three fire dragons padding down the hallway, and they glistened with goods. Maybe they would be willing to share the goods as a gift to his mate, Cynder? Spyro trekked to the three dragons, and they all looked up in shock at the purple dragon, looking quite embarrassed as he sat there, peering up to look at them. They gulped quietly.

"What's up?" the second-oldest fire dragon asked, a small smirk planted on his red lips.

"I-I was just going to ask, what would you like for one of those emerald necklaces?" Spyro pointed to the one he was talking about. The red dragon looked nervous.

"This is a gift to my mate, Shazi. By the way, I guess you're Spyro. Well, I'm Gezuti." He waggled a wing at Spyro.

"Anyway, I was hoping I could give that to my mate..." Spyro whispered.

"Buy her something. I wouldn't just give up my mate's gift for yours. And hey, isn't your mate...Uh...Ember?" Gezuti asked.

"No!" shrieked Spyro. "I wouldn't buy anything for that creep. My mate is Cynder...The Terror of the Skies."

All of the fire dragons shuddered at the words. "The Terror of the Skies killed our parents!" the youngest whimpered to Spyro, sadly.

"So if your mate is that beast, forget about it!" the oldest snapped at the purple dragon.

Spyro winced in hurt as the three dragons stormed away, their tails sweeping all of the dust that layered on the stone flooring of Warfang. How could they been so mean? She wasn't happy of her past! She was sad, that she'd killed so many innocent lives! He would get payback from those dragons. A bit of work and stealing would do. Spyro knew the right guy to go to.

* * *

"Lightning," Spyro said from the corner of the electric dragon's father's shop. The yellow head appeared from the corner.

"Spyro! It's been_ forever!_" The yellow dragon leapt up to greet his friend. "What would you like while my father's away?" he asked.

"Nothing...I just need your help." Spyro grinned at the yellow dragon as he strode around the shop in tight loops.

"It's been a while since you've needed my help," the yellow dragon smirked a rather sly grin before creeping over to Spyro. "What do you want?"

"You see, there were these three fire dragons I wanted to trade with. They had these emerald necklaces I wanted to get for Cynder. They said they had their own mates they would be giving the necklaces to. They asked me if my mate was Ember, and I told them that it was Cynder. They all shuddered at the name, for some reason, but Cynder reget her past. Then they got mad at me, and told me to forget about it." Spyro yawned tamely.

"I can help." Lightning glanced at Spyro.

"Follow me," the purple dragon said with a grin.

Spyro took Lightning towards the shops, and Spyro took a glance towards a small show at the corner of the aisles. Lightning saw the three dragons chuckling with the trader and handing over gems to trade. Spyro flew over silently towards the three dragons, and pointed with a firm claw to what they were doing. Lightning gazed down at the dragons, and nodded. Then Spyro decided to tell Lightning his plan.

Lightning would bustle between the three dragons, and make a big deal out of it. Then Spyro would go for the grab, and take as much gems as he possibly could. No one would even think about making fun of his mate from what her past was and actually think about getting away with it. After explaining the plan three times to the young dragon, the plan took action.

The yellow dragon padded down the aisles, looking for nothing. He was totally getting closer to the three dragons, and he grinned at the thought of trampling them to bits. Then, the electricity dragon slammed into the oldest one, and the two fell into a large heap on the ground. The tumbling caused the oldest dragon to growl, and even before Lightning could say sorry, the larger fire dragon pushed the yellow dragon down at his paws.

Lightning looked up, annoyed. Lashing away from the fire dragon, Lightning swing his tail blade around and whacked the oldest dragon across the face, just below his eyes. The fire dragon yelled in horror, before scampering backwards to a tree. After recovering, the fire dragon swung his claws across Lightning's face. With a shriek the yellow dragon struggled backwards and covered his face with his wings. The fire dragon smirked.

Not according to plan. Spyro wished he could help, but now a circle of dragons had gone around the fighting roosters. Spyro wiggled his way between two dragonesses and noticed that the fire dragon's brothers were right ahead of him. He could just grab one of the emerald necklaces and be out of here. He reached forward, and managed to clamp one of his paws around the necklace. With a yank, Spyro and the necklace tumbled backwards and pounded into the wall.

Spyro shrugged it away into his rabbit-skin pouch. He watched the battle, chanting Lightning's name. But the electric dragon was losing. The stronger fire dragon had advanced on him now, leaving the yellow dragon cowering on the floor. With a slam, the fire dragon pounded Lightning's air out of his lungs, and he sat there on the floor, tired. That was when the fire dragon had sunk his claws into Lightning's shoulders.

With a squirm, the yellow dragon immediately detached himself from the fire dragon. But the larger dragon just stared at Lightning and smirked. Then the rage kicked inside of Lightning. With a leap, he slammed into the fire dragon and scrambled at his flesh, kicking chunks of meat from his scales. Blood splattered the floor, and now everyone knew what Lightning was capable of.

All that the fire dragon ended out as was a hunk of bloody meat. Lightning spit on the floor after the attack. The fire dragon wormed his way out of the electric dragon's path, yelling and screaming for dear mercy. But Lightning wasn't finished. He pounced back on the dragon and growled in his face, "Leave me be!" and flung himself off, pounding in the other direction.

Spyro had caught up to his friend, "That was amazing!"

Lightning looked down. "It wasn't anything...I was just so mad."

"That really was something, you served him!" Spyro yelped.

"Yeah...I did, didn't I...Well how 'bout that?" Lightning chanted, happily.

"Well, I need to find Cynder..." Spyro whispered. "Thanks for your help, Lightning."

The electric dragon smiled. "No problem, bro." And with that, the two left each other for another long wait to see one another.

* * *

Cynder was busy shopping with Icy, Talloness, and Poison when Spyro had caught up to her. The emerald necklace was buried away in his pocket, and Cynder was laughing and having a good time with her friends. It was just so hard to disturb them. Spyro padded over to them, and tapped Cynder on her shoulder. The black dragoness turned around to see her mate standing behind her.

"Hey, Spyro!" she called.

"Hi, Cynder...How's shopping going for you?" he asked.

"It's called trading, and it's going fine." Cynder giggled.

"Well, that's great, because I'm about to make it better for you." He reached into the pouch.

Cynder was excited to see. "What's in it?" she asked.

"You'll see," Spyro said. Then he pulled out the emerald necklace he stole from the dragons.

"Oh my," Cynder whispered. "It's beautiful...Where did you get it?"

Behind her, all of Cynder's friends were whispering about the necklace, eager to know where he found it. "Cynder," one of them said. "That looks great on you."

Cynder had already put it on. "Thanks, Icy," she whispered. Then she leaned to Spyro, "Where did you get this?"

"Oh, a small shop down the road. You'll see it. But I bought the last pair. I was lucky I could even get you one...I was so eager." Spyro grinned at his mate.

Cynder blushed behind her black scales. "Thank you Spyro," she whispered. "I love it, it's so beautiful."

Spyro nodded. "Is there anything in that leather pouch you got me?" he joked. Cynder playfully swatted his face.

"Of course not," she said.

"Aww...You don't care for me anymore?" he teased.

"Of course I do, Spyro," she whispered. "I don't know what you like."

Spyro looked up in shock. "Black, red, or gold armor. Or maybe a black crystal."

Cynder beamed. "I've got it."

Then Spyro added, "We've still got Dinner later. How 'bout Tony's?"

"No...Tony is a very un-dragonish name." Cynder looked down.

"You're no fun," Spyro growled. "See you around." Then he took off towards the sky.

Flying around was no fun task. Other dragons were usually in the air when it came to trading day. Once every month, trading day occured on the last Saturday of that month. That's how you could tell. Spyro navigated his way through the streets, and noticed a gleaming armory shop at the far end of the trading aisle. Spyro flew down towards it.

Once he entered the shop, Spyro noticed all of the amazing armor packs that hung on the wall. He noticed a small line at the countertop, and wiggled into the back of the line. The two dragons at the front were having an arguement.

"But I do insist, Sir, a black crystal for that!" the trader demanded.

"I don't have a black crystal, I'm poor," the customer growled.

"Poor people don't get anything in this shop," the trader snarled.

"Well, why not? You can't get rid of _one_ armor collection?" the customer sneered.

"No! You don't have what I'm looking for, so get out! Guards!" the trader hissed.

"No, no, no, there's no need for guards," the customer snarled.

The trader looked down at the customer, a red fire dragon by the looks of it, and he had nothing but pelts on the countertop, begging for an armor set at the far end of the room, that was black with lines filled of molten magma. A very rare set.

"Guards!" said the trader, and two large dragons came and sweeped out the fire dragon, who was spitting with fury. His stuff was still on the countertop. The next dragon had a blue gem, and that was enough to give you a common headset. But this trader was not very fair, either. The customer disagreed.

"Not fair!" the customer growled at the trader, and left.

Spyro was in line after this dragon. He laid a silver gem on the countertop. "Anything in this shop, except for the Lava Set," the trader muttered. The dragon picked a wind helmet from the Wind Set, and trailed away with the armor on.

Spyro came up to the countertop next. "What for that, L-Lava Set?" he asked the trader. The dragon looked down at Spyro.

"A rare black crystal...Supposedly you don't have that?" the trader growled in menace, before turning around, "But you did save our world from the corruption of Malefor. I'll actually offer it for three white gems."

It was still more than Spyro had thought, but he handed over his last three gems and the trader handed him the armor set he asked for. With a smirk the trader gripped the three white gems and told Spyro to leave. He immediately left the situation and padded out into the trading streets. There was also a small shop at the other end of the Trading Aisle that Spyro noticed - a jewellery shop. Maybe he could buy something for Cynder.

Padding into the shop, Spyro almost instantly noticed a lave stone bracelet at the far end of the room. Spyro padded into the line, and it seemed to take a while before his turn actually appeared. At least that lave stone bracelet was still hanging there. No one had even bothered to ask for it. Spyro sat up on his hind legs to peak over the countertop. But there was not even a dragon there, but a mole!

Spyro looked down at the mole that stood there at the countertop, his whiskers feeling around for any customers. That's when he detected Spyro, and looked up in surprise. "Spyro the purple dragon...What would you be doing in a jewellery shop?" the mole asked, shocked. Spyro didn't bother to reply at first, then he noticed that the mole was actually trying to be nice.

"I need that Lava Stone Bracer for my mate, Cynder," Spyro told the mole, who looked up to see that the lava stone bracelet was still hanging on the countertop. The mole looked down at his feet, before Spyro countinued. "If there's anything that you would like for that Lava Stone Bracer, I'd be willing to give it to you. No matter what the item is I have, other than my new armor set."

"Ahh...I see you got some armor from Huzzle, didn't you? Clever old guy, we were friends back in the days when the dragon schools were around. Now hatchlings such as my dearest friend's son are only taught here at the dragon city. Did you know moles and dragons used to be taught together? Well, nevermind that, I want a Soul Stone for that Bracer." The mole chuckled.

"A Soul Stone?" Spyro whimpered. "Those are very rare, and valuable. I'm not too sure I'd like to fetch a Soul Stone. Is that the lowest price for the savior of the world?"

"I actually was selling it for three Soul Stones. So yes, that's the lowest price." The mole chuckled again. "Do you have a Soul Stone?" the mole asked.

"N-no! I would never be able to...I don't have anything good enough except for this whole set of Lava Armor-" Spyro was cut off.

"Lava Set? That's so worth it as well. You can gift me that set and I'll gift you your new Lava Stone Bracer! What do you think?"

"No thank you," Spyro said. "I sent away good items for this, and I'd hate to lose it just now." Spyro walked away from the mole. "What about his bracelet? What for it?"

The mole looked up. "Oh, Lava Armor," he said. "Everything in here is for a _Whole Set of Lava Armor._" The mole laughed greedily. Spyro was not amused.

"No thank you, Sir." After saying those words, Spyro flew out of the shop.

Rain had now begun to pour down, and Spyro landed on a rock to look at his new Lava Set, and smiled at the thought of him wearing that to a Ball Dance or something. A Ball Dance would be nice, but those were only once a year at the dragon city, and it passed about...Eleven months ago? It would be soon!

The time for getting the set of Lava Armor was more than perfect! "Thank you, Huzzle," Spyro whispered to the trader at the armor shop, and looked down at the trading citizens below. Most of them were covering their heads with their wings, some of them were golden, scarlet, neon green, dark blew shapes walking in the breeze. There was nothing more perfect than trading day...

Other than Cynder.

The black dragoness had been gone from him since the afternoon, and now she was no where to been seen. Maybe she was in a jewellery hut having a good time with her friends, not wondering about where Spyro was or what he was going. Spyro decided to look for her.

He was zipping by all of the huts, and some of the dragons walking on the streets looked up in shock at the purple dragon who was whipping by them. He had gone passed all thirty Trading Aisles from the city, ten huts every aisle. She was nowhere.

Then he heard a scream. Spyro leapt out of the aisle, to see three dark navy figures dragging away a screeching black dragoness, and Spyro knew it was Cynder. With a yelp, Spyro darted after her. But Cynder looked as if she was fine. She kicked away all of the enemies and began to fly. Spyro whirred after her.

Once Spyro caught up, he reached out for Cynder's shoulder. He could feel her delicate scales beneath his forepaw, and he sighed in appreciation at her safety. But he could feel a tremble beneath her skin, and all of them enemies that had captured his mate were flying up after the two. Spyro whirled out of the way, and called, "Cynder, follow me!"

The black dragoness had taken flight towards the top of the city, and Spyro had now followed her there. The black dragoness gazed into Spyro's eyes, for they were watering with fear. "T-they captured m-my f-friends...I don't k-know where they a-are!" she cried. Tears streamed down her face.

"It's okay, Cynder." Spyro buried his head into his mate's shoulder. "We're alright now." He looked into her emerald eyes that shine with fear and hate of the dragons. Spyro leaned his head down to give her a nuzzle, and she relaxed more appreciatively. The rain carassed down the two, and Cynder now had a smile on her face.

"You make me feel better," Cynder said, wiping away her tears and looking down to see if the navy dragons were still there. Spyro looked down at her neck, and noticed something. Where was her necklace?

"Cynder?" he asked her. The black dragoness looked up. "What happened to your necklace?"

The black dragoness looked very confused. "What do you mean?" she asked. "The one you gave me?"

"Uh...Yeah." Spyro looked concerned.

"Right! It's at home. I hoped no one would steal it. Then I came back outside and my friends were being dragged away. I was so glad you could help me."

"Are you okay? Ever since the capture you've been acting strange." Spyro looked at his mate more closely.

"What do you mean? You're the one acting strange." Cynder backed away. "There's nothing wrong with me, is there?" she asked.

"I guess you're in shock," Spyro muttered disdainfully. "Well, I think maybe we should head back home. And get some rest, so we can have dinner peacefully today."

"Yes," Cynder whispered. "We can. But there's one little problem," she added darkly. Spyro looked up surprised. Cynder reached behind her back and Spyro heard a zipping sound. Cynder's skin began to fall off, and she kicked it off rudely. Spyro looked up.

"Huh?"

Her scales glimmered red. Her emerald eyes were now a dull green. The red dragoness leaned to Spyro and said, "I'm not Cynder." Spyro's eyes widened.

"Where is she? What did you do with her?" Spyro demanded. The red dragoness laughed evilly. "She's not hurt...Yet."

"Arggh!" Spyro slammed into the red dragoness, and she began to fall down off the cliff with Spyro not far behind her. He accidently knocked into her wing and the two fell down onto to cobblestone flooring. The red dragoness winced.

Then, the three navy dragons landed beside the newcomer. The dragoness growled, "The name is Amaria." Then, she stepped aside, to push along the real Cynder, who was trapped in a cage with her friends, eyes brimmed with tears, yelling for Spyro loudly. Her necklace was still on her neck.

"Spyro!" she screamed.

Then, Amaria flung Spyro in the cage and his world faded black.

**What did you think of that chapter? Did you like it? Anyway, I hope I haven't made Spyro and Cynder too weak for your liking. XDD Well, I hope you're still following my book, because now I'm here to write the third chapter!**

**I hope you enjoyed.**


	3. Chapter 3

**Hello! I know it's been a couple of months...My dear readers, I hope you are okay that I have made you wait like longer than last time. It may take a couple of days for updates, but I sure do hope that you won't mind...If it takes a couple of weeks, than I may be busy, but hey, I'm sure that life won't get in the way. I hope homework isn't too bad, either, 'cause that can get in the way, too. Enjoy this chapter.**

**3**

"Spyro! Wake up!"

The purple dragon could feel breath on the side of his face. He recognized Cynder's worried voice in the musty fog. He didn't remember what had happened to him, and where he was. There were four other dragons with him in the cage. Cynder, Icy, Talloness, and Poison. The four of them were exchanging worried glances at the purple dragon, who sat up and moaned miserably.

"Where am I?" Spyro asked Cynder.

The black dragoness looked down. "Amaria brought us down into an abyss. We're inside of some prison or something." Spyro looked around at the cage, for it had been the same one that they all had been thrown into, but inside of a locked cellar.

"Oh no...What happened to us?" Icy grumbled, folding her blue wings and staring at the ceiling of the cage.

"Me and Cynder were supposed to be having dinner," Spyro hissed through gritted teeth, and he stretched out on the floor and looked around. "I don't like the look of this place either."

Poison spoke for the first time in a while. "I'm sure we all don't, but we need to stay calm," she suggested, warmly.

"Yes," Talloness agreed. "Posion is right. We all need to make sure we don't panic. Spyro, you especially. This cage is small, we all get that, but we can't feel claustrophobic, either."

Spyro struggled to get to his legs and sit down inside of the cage. "You're sure positive about that," Spyro replied darkly, bumbing his horn into the roof of the cage. "Don't make me worry about this inconsequential space."

Cynder piped up, "It's not too bad...I mean, we're unharmed in here. We should be okay for a while, Amaria said."

Poison snorted, rudely. "Who cares what the red dragoness has to say?" The lime green dragoness laid down on her back. "Saying you trust her, Cynder?"

"No, but I believe her about that. She said she had to talk to the King or something." Cynder glanced around their cellar. Rats had scurried across the floor, and dirtied bones were splayed about the room. It stunk of a marshy stench, one that you'd find inside of a sewer.

Spyro looked nervous. "I have to get out of here. What time is it, anyway?"

Cynder also looked unsure. "Um...Midnight? We needed to wake you up. We were worried about you."

"Thank you for your concern," Spyro muttered. "But help me break these bars!" He tried to pull the bars, and even push at some, but whenever he did, the bars didn't budge. "I know!" he blabbered. "Fire melts iron!"

When he was about to put a coat of fire over the metal bars, the door of the cellar opened and Amaria stepped in, closing it roughly behind her. Spyro glared at the approaching dragoness, who didn't mutter a single word as she reached for the cage, picked it up, and dragged it outside of the cellar. A rat around there squeaked miserably.

That's when the red dragoness spoke. "The King wants to talk to the purple and black dragons."

Cynder scowled and muttered, "Dragon_ess._"

"Mind your tongue, girl." Amaria pushed the cage away into the cellar.

"In a cage?" snarled Poison with a sneer.

"Oh - Right." Amaria unlocked the cage door and shoved Spyro and Cynder out, before slamming the cage door shut again and slipping it further away into the misty darkness. Spyro shivered.

"Can't we just fly out of here?" Spyro growled at Amaria as she led them through the hallways.

"Don't count on it." Amaria turned a sharp corner. "There's guards everywhere. You wouldn't stand a chance."

"You doubt my strength?" sneered Spyro with a low growl. "I could take you on right here, girl."

Amaria whipped around spat, "Shut up, little hatchling!"

"Make me, pinky." Spyro sat down on the floor and blabbed on and on about the war with Malefor.

"Spyro, stop. You'll get us into trouble-"

"-oh yes, we defeated Malefor. And it was great. All of your pathetic warriors aren't even one Malefor-"

"SILENCE!" screamed a voice at the end of the room. A pitch black dragon was sitting down on a throne, red eyes fixed on Spyro. "Or your tongue will be cut out!"

Silence immediately spread over the dragons. The black dragon paced around the room, getting up from his throne and glaring at the purple dragon and the black dragoness. Spyro looked at the demon in front of him. From his looks this dragon did terrible things.

There was a pile of bones at the side of the throne. The black dragon's red eyes curled to Spyro. "I captured a hero, hmm?" he snarled, flicking his snake-like tongue in and out of his mouth. "There will be a couple of things we'll be doing today. Nice work, Amaria. Give me that Cynder skin."

The red dragoness picked up the contacts and skin, and handed it over to the black dragon. Spyro piped up, "May we know your name?"

The black dragon dropped the skin and snarled, "Why should you? You're a purple dragon like the wretched Malefor. We need you to help us stay alive. Capturing you will stop another purple dragon to do bad things. So we're going to take some...Tests."

Cynder stopped in dread. "And what does this have to do with me?" she asked, nervously. The black dragon laughed.

"You'll be telling me all you know about this boy, this cursed soul. I'm very sorry, homeslice," spat the dragon, "you're unlucky to be chosen such a beast, you purple freak." The dragon clicked his banana-long claws against the stone floor. "I believe you will turn into evilness when you grow up, such as Malefor did. You will send another army out, and force us deeper into these caves. My entire life I've been stuck down here. One thousand years our Tribe has been down in these ruins."

"I'm sorry," Cynder said. "But we're not evil dragons. Spyro saved us from Malefor. He doesn't want to be like him, either."

"Malefor didn't want to end the world, either. He was a very nice dragon at first. Then everything went wrong for him. Something bad happened at his cave when he had grown up, the Dragon Ancestors only know what, and he spread the evil for one thousand years!" The black dragon howled with anger, and slouched down into his throne.

"What will these tests be like?" Cynder whispered, afraid.

"Oh, personality quizzes. We'll begin after your lunchtime. It's midnight, so you'd better run back to that cave, before Amaria makes you go there. Hmm...It's not fun, I tell you. Velcin, Rupthin, take Amaria and these two hatchlings away from me."

Two navy dragons came up beside Amaria, Cynder, and Spyro, and were pushing them to their cellar. Cynder was whispering to Spyro, and the largest navy dragon, Velcin, yanked Cynder's tail, and she screamed before scampering ahead a bit more. Velcin grinned.

The stones that lined the area were very thick, and Cynder wondered why none of Malefor's troops had come down there in the first place. You'd need wings to get out of it. The apes would tumble down and possibly die from the collision.

The two dragons were foced into their tiny cage, and Rupthin locked the cellar door, along with the cage, so that just like before, none of the dragons could run around the cellar and make so much noises. The cellars were very tiny, and Cynder wasn't so sure she'd want to run around in them.

"What happened," Posion asked as the two navy dragons left.

"A talk," Spyro hissed at her, and laid down on the cage floor. The other dragons had to cramp into the other side.

"What was it about?" Icy piped.

"Tests...Personality tests." Cynder looked up at the blue dragon's eyes.

"Personality tests?" asked Talonness as she sat up. "Like, DNA tests?"

The five dragons chuckled. "Heck no...I think." Cynder looked unsure.

Icy padded around the clearing. "This is bad. This is bad."

Talonness only scowled at her friend. "Of course it is. We need to help you out. All of us."

"We need to plan, yes." Posion slid up from her feet and looked around nervously.

Spyro was very nervous as it was. They were going to be taking tests, personality tests, that may put a dead stop to their lives. With a quick gulp, he attempted to wiggle behind the dragonesses, but they only tossed him back out and scowled, murming about how he should not be very scared of a black dragon that threatened their lives. After all, he had defeated Malefor, so what harm could be done?

Indeed much harm could be. And not was on Spyro worried, but was Cynder. Being forced to take such tests could not be a good thing at all. With a quick glance at their prison, Cynder lay her head down on her paws and tossed her wings into the air. Wondering when their next meal would be, she curled up to sleep, annoyed by the rustling Spyro and the dragonesses were making.

* * *

"Get up, you old louse." Amaria's familiar voice rattled Spyro's ears. The purple dragon sat up and took a look at his surroundings. Indeed, they were the same. Except for the fact that Amaria was inside of the room they were stuck inside of it. Four navy dragons were at one end of the room, their smokey breaths curling into the air around them. Cynder also noticed the smoke and twitched rapidly.

"Maybe we're still tired?" threatened Spyro with a low growl. "After all, it seems as though we've been sleeping for two minutes. A little rest before this DNA quiz would be helpful. And it would refresh my mind so I'm clear for questions." With a quick snort he curled his wings back up again and lay his head on the metal bar of the cage. But Amaria was not pleased with the news.

"You're getting up when I tell you to!" the red dragoness snarled dangerously. "And we're taking the tests now...You like it or not." She slammed into the cage with her thick tail. The purple dragon lifted his head off the floor and eyed her, before lifting to the air with his legs and padding towards the edge of the cage, next to the door. He pawed it anxiously, before it slid right open. The purple dragon hopped out.

Cynder took a couple of bashes to get out of the crammed cage. She lifted off her legs just as Spyro had done before, and walked around the cellar they were inside of. She groaned as she pulled along after Amaria and Spyro, too tired to even think about taking any kind of personality test that involved her having too think about the questions. She almost flopped over in a dead faint. "I need sleep..." she mumbled, but Spyro lifted her too her feet.

"You can't stop now!" screeched Amaria. "I have work I have to do, and you have yours. So stop falling over or I'll cut your legs off, so you won't have the expierience to walk ever again!" The rocky walls rattled as she spoke. Her tail slithered along the floor, and her red eyes narrowed. The spines on her neck bristled, her wings curling in the most dangerous way.

"I'm sorry," Cynder muttered as she picked herself off the ground for the last time.

"Good, we need to keep moving." With that, Amaria spun back around and walked on.

Spyro trotted down beside Cynder, and whispered, "Look for escape routes."

The black dragoness nodded and looked around the cavern. There wasn't much routes in the silent place. Some cracks along the wall shone erosion in the caves a couple of hundred years ago. Mice and snakes probably lived in the cracks. Some were large enough for the two dragons to probably squeeze through, but the corridors where they were headed were getting much quite narrow.

Spyro didn't have much luck, either. No matter how much he looked, there were only tiny splinters in the rocky abyss. As they walked further into the narrow tunnel, a thin mist started to form at the back. It was an eerie silence, and Spyro longed to hear Amaria talk again so the silence would stop. The mist would probably keep it from echoing down the hallways and corridors so they could speak freely without other navy dragons and dragonesses hearing them.

Amaria was keeping a close eye on them. She had her duties to do, and after all, the new king was not as generous as the one before. It was just a shame to see him dead the next morning. The black dragon proclaimed he had tried to save him, that a bunch of apes raided that night and killed him. But Amaria knew that was far from the truth. The slit on his neck was not the work of an ape. But of a dragon.

The three dragons padding along until a small rocky room at the end of the cavern shone through the mist. The ceiling of the room was covered. A couple of navy dragons guared the entrance. Amaria walked quickly over to them and whispered a couple of silent words. The two guards nodded and stepped out of the way. With a quick beat of his wings, Spyro followed the red dragoness in.

"This," Amaria murmured, "is the test lab. It's relatively new." She scanned the fresh shelves of obsidian and cobblestone. "We've tried a couple of people in here. Most of them were fine, as far as answering the questions, but some of them decided not to tell anything. If you don't tell anything," Amaria added, "you're dead."

Cynder winced from behind Spyro and darted along the narrow trails behind him. She wasn't sure she should tell anything about Spyro or where they had come from or why there were there. But she wasn't sure she wanted to die, either. With a gulp she lowered her head and stood behind the broad purple dragon that had been her friend for so long, ever so long.

"You, purple boy," growled the red dragoness. "You're first. And Azte will be taking care of you while you wait." She motioned to Cynder, and immediately a green dragon kept her chained to the side of the room, the hook connected feebly to her choker around her neck. The black dragoness twisted and turned in her shackles, but she would not be freed. After many minutes she slumped down and sighed.

Spyro let Amaria take him to end of the room. She chained him all up. His paws were chained to the wall. His body was chained. His tail was chained. His neck was chained. His wings were chained. Now he could only move his eyes. Amaria grumbled her happiness at the sight of seeing the purple dragon so helpless, but they were well known for their fury and dark hearts. She would have to be careful.

"First question - Oh wait." Amaria picked up an old battery with several wires hanging from it. She clipped them to Spyro. "You'll get zapped if you don't answer the question." She padded along the room. "Now, first question," Amaria growled, "are you with the Dragons of Warfang?"

"Yes," Spyro stammered.

"Good. Now, second question, why were you there?" Amaria paced wildly.

"To, um..." Spyro thought. Then the next second, _zap!_ "Argh!" The purple dragon tried to free himself.

"Answer the question!" Amaria loaded the battery for another zap.

"No! No!" Spyro begged. Then he made it up. "To become a guardian!"

"Liar!" spat Amaria. Another spine-shattering zap filled the room.

Spyro screeched, "Argh!" He was in so much pain.

"Tell the truth!" she growled.

"I am! I am! I've been at Warfang since I was a hatchling. I was trained and raised by the guardians since I have no mother or father. As I grew up, I went in line for the fire guardian, because the older one, Ignitus, died shortly in the Ring of Fire." Spyro braced for another zap.

"Very good..." Amaria growled. "Now-"

She stopped mid-sentence. Spyro's scales began to turn bright purple to deep black. His eyes lost their color, and they faded inside of the whites. His voice's pitch changed. A black mist formed along his scales. His tail twitched beneath the bars of the cage. Fury surged up inside of him. Any moment he opened his mouth a long stream of convexity would emerge.

Amaria stifled a gasp before opening her wings and swooping out of the room. Spyro broke free of his chains, growled at Azte, and he flew out too. Just then, after hearing Cynder give a little gasp, got his pupils and scales back. Spyro walked over to Cynder. "Let's go," he grumbled. "We need to get out of here."

Cynder growled a bit. "But what about the others?" she questioned the purple dragon. "We can't just leave them here. They'll think we're selfish and took off without them." The purple dragon rolled his eyes and muttered something about dragonesses and their friends. Cynder playfully swatted her friend and spread open her wings. "And we still need that dinner," she added.

With a small smile Spyro flew out into the narrow passage and glided to the cages that their friends were locked inside. Posion was the first to notice them, and she stood up in anticipation, grinning at their success. "Great," she said. "How'd you escape?"

Cynder growled. "No time for that. Let's get out of here. Spyro will melt the bars."

Spyro did as he was told, turned tail and soared out of the cavern, into the light of the sky.


	4. Chapter 4

**Welcome to chapter four. Last chapter was a short one. XD Not much to do with it. This one will be longer, I promise you that. I am going to become active with this story again so you all can enjoy it and keep waiting for updates. I will be a couple of days for updates, but I'm sure you can wait. Enjoy chapter four.**

**4**

Spyro hurriedly dashed along the corridors, desperate to seek out any air from the approaching sky above. Amaria was wrong. There were no guards watching over the land from this position. It would be an easy escape. Or would it? Not too far behind Spyro, Cynder was leading the dragonesses to the top where Spyro led them too.

There was a rumble and crack as a massive boulder toppled down into the abyss below them. A couple of dens were lodged into the sides of the rocks, possibly where Spyro and Cynder could have made their escape. But that didn't matter now. The five dragons were now approaching the skyline and ready to escape.

Cynder grabbed a small rock and tossed it down the abyss to roll into the fading world they had just left. _Take that you miserable old termites!_ the black dragoness though as she rode the wind into the sky higher and higher. Other than the beating of their massive hearts and the beating of their wings was heard.

Talloness looked around at the fading ground as the five dragons lifted into the air. There was nothing stopping them now. A couple of hours they would be back at the dragon city. Then one thought struck her head. Where was the dragon city? Cynder and the other dragonesses hadn't been paying attention because they were concerned for Spyro.

A back-breaking crackle rattled the air as six full-grown navy dragons flew over to the five young ones. They beat their wings powerfully, and raced the sky towards the dragons. Icy heard the crack and looked down to see the dragons approaching them, quickly. She tried to fly faster, but a huge current kept her struggling.

Spyro was even concerned enough about the crackle so he looked down as well. And there they were the navy dragons, all coming at them withy their claws outstretched. How were they going to get back with all those dragons stumbling in the air behind them? Spyro would have to think of a way.

Just as he had an idea, another dragon popped out, more furious than ever. Amaria. Her red scales were glowing so much in the morning light that she looked like a meteor falling coming up frm the ground. She zoomed right by the navy dragons, a snarl curled up on her face, and used her massive paws to grab Posion's neck.

The green dragoness squirmed to escape the red dragoness' grasp, but no detection of letting go came. Posion felt her throat getting coiled around tighter and tighter, and she gasped silently. But Cynder wouldn't just sit there and watch Amaria kill her friend. With a quick zipping sound she pelted across the sky, coiled her tailblade, and whacked Amaria's paw.

The red dragoness shrieked as she dove backwards into the sky, away from the other dragons that were making their attempt to escape. With a growl, she approached Cynder, but since she was Spyro's friend, the purple dragon lunged at Amaria's chestplates. Sinking his fangs into her scales, the purple dragon wouldn't let go. Amaria had an idea.

She rose above the other dragons a bit, moved her paw towards Spyro's back, and sank her claws into his scales. The purple dragon stifled a gasp as he immediately let go and hovered down to his friends. But Amaria flapped over and crushed Spyro with all her weight. The two fell towards the ground.

Talloness saw the two fall, and whizzed towards them, pushed Spyro out and slid out from underneath Amaria. She was going so fast it would take her forever to regain her flight. Just as Amaria saw what happened, she spread out her wings and sailed towards the floor in a jumbled heap.

Two of the six navy dragons thundered towards the dragonesses. They leapt with paws outstretched, claws raised to the sky. Cynder darted underneath them and turned upside down. She raked her claws along their belly and the first navy dragon screeched and sailed to the floor.

Not too far below Spyro was banking left to swirvel out of the navy dragon and Amaria's way, who had regained her flight. She breathed a bit of hot plasma right onto Spyro, and the purple dragon's scales sizzle like a hot fire in the blacksmith's room. Spyro screamed quietly and fell down a couple of feet, attempting to attack Amaria from below.

Of course, now the red dragoness was just spitting plasma onto the other young dragons, and they screeched and fell down a couple of feet or a couple of meters. As she watched them Amaria laughed and a evil smirk curled onto her face. Her green eyes were twisted with hatred of the purple dragon and his friends.

Posion, who was still recovering from the grasp Amaria made around her neck, plunged down into the world below, slammed into the body of a navy dragon, flipped around, and tried to pull off his wings. When the bone fracture did nothing, she gripped his membrane and yanked.

All of the soft fabric inside of his wing was gone. The same for the other side. Beating the two stubs frantically, the navy dragon plummeted into the abyss below, and a loud thump emerged from the bottom. At the same time, Posion turned and fled the top of the abyss, where the battle still roared above.

Icy was twisting and turning above, lunging towards navy dragons a breathing a cool wisp of ice onto their scales, and they turned brittle and hard, and fell away. The navy dragons were quite simple to harm, however, Amaria was much faster and much smarter. She easily avoided all the young dragons.

Talloness was doing fine. Icy the same. Posion was still healing. Cynder was alright. Spyro was still healing. With a quick gulp Cynder dove to Amaria, tilted her head forwards and drove her horns right into Amaria's side. The red dragon looked at Cynder and fell sideways, almost retreating into her dark home.

The five dragons forced the red monster back into hiding. With a low growl she added, "You're never going to get away with this. This isn't the last of me!" And retreated into the undergrownth, which had so long been her home, and where she would start her quest to end the young dragons' journey.

Cynder watched her leave, and grunted. "We need to go," she said.

"Of course we do. They may be sending in reinforcements," Posion added stubbornly.

Spyro took a quick glance at his mate. "Cynder's right. But there's one problem..."

"What?" Icy asked as she soared over the cliff towards Spyro.

"We don't know where the dragon city is." Spyro looked at the dragonesses.

"We'll find it, of course," Talloness muttered dumbfoundly.

Cynder looked up at the sky, and nodded. The morning sun was just coming over the cliff, and that meant it was the perfect time to leave. She looked at her friends and nodded. "We should start that way." And with those words began to fly forward. The other dragons followed her.

"We need to take a couple of rests along the way," Poison muttered, gripping her throat. "We've already been flying a couple of minutes." She was wobbling as she flew. Spyro noticed that, and he knew that she was in pain of the wound Amaria made to her neck, in which claw marks remained.

"Yes, we'll find a stream of water for you to wash your wound. But you're going to have to fly a bit further. This place is all rocky and full of cracks and crevices. And one abyss, where those evil dragons are making their home." Spyro looked at the sun as it rose in the sky. It's beautiful waves rolled along the skyline.

"They're evil, alright," Cynder agreed as she flew down beside Spyro. "They think you'll turn out like Malefor. But you won't. Your friends care about you. They won't make you an evil person." She smirked at her friend and flapped on through the day, letting the wind take her places along the group.

"I'm sure glad it isn't raining," growled Icy as she looked up at the sky, would she thought was quite clear as it was. There wasn't a single cloud in sight. She smiled in wonder as she flapped a little away from the group. Talloness made sure she was alright thought. Icy was tired, yes, but she wasn't going to wander off.

The group flew on throughout the day. There was no sign of water whatsoever. Spyro was beginning to lose his hope. They started flying at sunrise. Now the sun was already falling. Poison was getting weaker and weaker. They needed to find water, so that Poison's wound wouldn't get infected.

The night had almost camped in. Spyro grumbled, "We need to stop now. Poison needs rest. If she doesn't get a good sleep she could die overnight...Or the wound will just get infected." He made a long hover over the land and touched down on the soft grass. "I'll get some moss for everyone." And he took off.

Cynder tended to all the others, who were flopping over on their sides, heaving tiredly. They had been flying all day. She wanted to flop over too, but she knew staying awake before Spyro got back was important. She needed to keep watch on the rest. And Icy looked pretty happy that they had been camping for the night.

"Talloness," Cynder whispered in her friend's ear. The dragoness looked up in concern. "You look the least tired of us all. Perhaps you could go get some firewood to start a small fire here?" The dragoness nodded, slunk to her feet, and flapped away into the forest. She was a good friend.

* * *

Spyro looked around at the trees that were hanging low overhead of him. They didn't have long before his mate and her friends would get worried. He only found enough moss for one nest. How was he going to get to camp in time that he had enough moss for everyone to have a bed to sleep in?

There was a dull rustle in the woods. The ferns rattled in the air. Palm fronds waved wildly. Something was there. Spyro squatted down and peered through the bushes. A low growl escape the woods. Spyro crept closer and closer to the noise, and sprang. He met a surprise underneath.

"Talloness!" he spat, letting her up to breath.

"Oh, that's just you, Spyro," the dragoness breathed a slow bit.

"What're you doing here?" he growled.

"To find firewood, Cynder wanted me to," Talloness mumbled underneath her breath.

"Get back to the camp or find firewood someplace else," the purple dragon growled back. "I don't need trouble. I thought you could have been a stray ape. I was determined to find you. So go somewhere else." He pointed to the trees west of him. "Like over there would be alright."

Talloness scowled as she walked over towards the trees he motioned to. "Fine." And with that she spread her wings and beated them, moving to the sky. Watching her disappear from eye view, Spyro walked along the roots of the trees, scanning them for any sign of moss whatsoever. There was none.

With a sigh, he walked west, searching for a place to find moss. That's when he saw a light. Had Talloness already found all the firewood? He walked over towards the campfire, and noticed it was located inside of a cave. With a gasp, Spyro padded over to it, and listened.

Only the sound of fire could be heard. It was a big fire too. He peered over the side of the cave entrance and looked inside. There was a massive blue dragon inside of the cave, chewing old bones and looking into the fire as if he saw something inside of it as well. He seemed to have lived tehre a long time.

Then the dragon looked right, towards Spyro. The blue dragon caught a slow glimpse of the purple dragon sticking his head outside of the cave. With a growl, he walked over and looked left. The purple dragon was crouched in the corner. The blue dragon grabbed Spyro by his wing and dragged him inside.

"Who're you?" he growled, a accent tinted to his voice.

"Spyro..." The purple dragon looked up at the fierce gaze of the blue dragon.

"Where do you come from?" he growled again.

"The dragon city." Spyro winced at the dragon's laugh.

"The dragon city? An interesting place for a purple dragon." The blue dragon smirked.

"What do you want?" Spyro asked with a quick glance at the dragon. It's smile faded.

"Nothing that you've got." It was looking around at him, curiously. "And what're you doing here?"

"I was looking for moss for my friends, and I saw your cave," the purple dragon admitted.

"Moss? For beds? I know the best place to look for moss..." the blue dragon said. "Follow me, please." And with that it opened up it's wings and flew outside of the cave. "You are your fellow friends can stay the night..." It hovered above the trees and landed. "Here we are."

Spyro looked at all the moss clumps. "Wow thanks!" he muttered, looking at all the strands hanging down from the trees. "I would be looking all night if it weren't for you. I'll go get them, and bring them to your cave." With that, he winged around and flew outside of the moss feild. The blue dragon flew back to his den.

* * *

"Hey guys!" Spyro called happily as he landed down beside his friends.

The three dragons looked up. "Yes? Did you find moss?"

"Yes! But instead this kind dragon is letting us sleep in his cave for the night."

They got to their feet. "Where's Talloness?" asked Cynder, looking concerned.

"Should we wait for her?" asked Icy, stretching. Poison said nothing, but gripped her throat.

"No," Spyro said. "Let's walk, so she can follow our scent trail. I'm sure she's alright." And with that, the four dragons walked away into the forest, Spyro leading the way. Not even a bird stirred in the night, as the full moon shone down on them. They made sure they didn't step on the rocks around them.

They had finally entered the cave. Cynder sat down on a boulder beside her mate, Spyro. Looking him in the eye she said nervously, "I'm worried for Talloness. She could be in huge trouble, we're just not there for her, and we won't ever be." She looked at the cave's entrance, as if hoping to see Talloness come back.

"We've gotten everything." Spyro looked at his Lava Armor, which over the last few days he'd forgotten about. It sparkled in the fire. Nearby, the blue dragon was cooking up his hog that he'd caught. Everyone inside of the cave looked desperate for the biggest slice. It'd been forever since they last eaten.

"I know...We just need to find her. If she doesn't come back by morning, I'm going out to look for her. And you should ask your friend here where the next stream comes by, or where to find food the best." And with that she slipped off her rock and padded towards the bed that were provided.

Spyro knew that Cynder was worried. But she couldn't stay that way, not forever. He was sure that the dragoness was completely fine. And if she wasn't, then they would send a search party for her in the morning. Hoping she would be there, Spyro turned to his friend, the blue dragon. He sat down beside him as he cooked up the hog.

"I have a question or two..." The purple dragon poked the blue dragon in the ribs. "Or maybe three." With a look down, the blue dragon noticed Spyro.

"Yes?" he asked.

"What is your name?" the purple dragon questioned.

"I am Vytrl." The blue dragon shifted uncomfortably.

"Second, where is the next stream headed south of here?" Spyro asked.

"A couple of miles." Vytrl looked up nervously.

"Lastly, where is the best food found south of here?" the purple dragon asked again.

"Um...In a massive herd a couple hours. Fly straight," the blue dragon murmured.

Spyro thanked Vytrl for the information, and watched him as he turned the hog over the fire, it's legs all twisted up. It was already a smokey color. It's skin was fresh and brown in color. It's ears looked crispy and delicious. Spyro now wanted the ears...If they tasted good anyway.

"You should go to sleep," Vytrl murmured as he lowered his head to let the hog cook overnight.

"Yes, so I should stop worrying about Talloness." And with that, he curled up in the provided moss beds beside Cynder. The black dragoness smiled happily as the purple dragon slept noiselessly beside her. His breathing made her comfortable. She thought about being back at the dragon city with Spyro, trading and eating dinner everyday.

Of course the feeling never came back. And Cynder wasn't positive that it would. She looked up in wonder. Not much had happened since they've been at Vytrl's cave. As the dragons around her slept, Cynder wondered about Talloness. Where was her friend? Was she following the scent trail now?

A flash of lightning suddenly shook the sky's darkness to a bright yellowish-white. She padded over towards the end of the cave. Rain had begun to fall down. With a swallow, she backed up. Still worried about her friend, she looked at the hog. It was fine, just as it had been. Then a thought struck her. The rain would cover the scent!

With a dash towards Spyro, Cynder flopped back down into the moss. If it hadn't been for Cynder telling Talloness that she needed to go get firewood, she wouldn't be lost outside in the forest at the moment. Guilt buried itself into Cynder's scales, and the black dragoness decided to wiat for morning to come.

* * *

"Talloness?" asked Spyro sleepily as he got to his feet. But the dragoness was not in there. It was still black like night. With a gulp, the purple dragon nudged his mate to get her up. With a glance at the purple dragon, the black dragoness got to her feet and padded forward slowly.

Rain was still falling from the sky. Loud thunder boomed in their ears. None of the other dragons had gotten up yet. With a growl, Cynder knew that Spyro was saying to go look for their friend, Talloness. Now they were both pretty worried about her. With a quick beat of his wings, the two took off into the rain.

Spyro felt rain falling over his scales. With a shiver, he scanned overhead of the forest. He saw the tree's glorious tops, but the bottoms of them and beneath them were hidden in darkness. The dragoness could be anywhere. With a small grunt, Spyro lowered towards the forest.

Of course there was nothing. Not a single scale of a dragon was in sight. With a glance towards Cynder, Spyro whispered to her, "Let's split up. If anything happens to us we should be able to take care of it." With a nod, Cynder darted the oppsosite way of Spyro, where more light was showing in the trees.

The dragoness was nowhere. Spyro was flying towards the darkest parts of teh forest, keeping a watchful eye on the land below him. It would just be too dangerous to land in a place like this. With a swallow, he took another flap and decided maybe it would be best to search for her on the ground.

Cynder did not have much like, either. She was scanning every fern for her friend, hoping to see her happy face peek out and call to her. But however, the dragoness did not emerge from the shadows. Cynder was more worried that ever. Spyro and Cynder agreed in two hours they would head back if they hadn't found her.

Cynder looked underneath a large willow tree and sighed. Her friend was nowhere at all. With a grunt, she slid down on her stomach and decided to rest here, in case her friends would back by yor something. She waited, only the crickets could be detected in the darkness as the rain fell over her scales.

"Talloness?" Cynder asked as she heard a rustle in the bush. She walked over to it and torn it apart. It was just a squirrel. It looked at Cynder, squeaked, and scuttled towards the closest tree that it could find. Cynder went to look in the sky again, even then did she seem to have more luck in finding her friend.

Spyro walked around the forest and looked in the stones. It was quite dark in this eerie place. With a shiver, Spyro ran along the stones that led to the stream. At least there was water here. Maybe this was one of the trails Talloness took? Or had it really been a couple of miles he had been flying already?

There was another faint rustle in the ferns before him. Eyes now alert, Spyro tilted his head as he approached. It rustled more, and he parted the bushes. An ape leapt right out at his muzzle. Spyro rolled out of the way, and the ape crashed into the water, screaming loudly. It had blood on it's claws.

It wheeled around towards Spyro and leapt again. The purple dragon set out a spark of flames into the ape's face. The ape howled in pain before darting towards the edge of the clearing. It turned itself around again using a tree and jumped at the purple dragon once more. Using his tailblade, Spyro whacked it hard in the head.

A long cut burned inside of the ape's head. With another scream, it took it's turn in a massive thump on Spyro side. The purple dragon fell over, but easily regained his feet. Once it jumped this time a bolt of electricity shot out before the ape, struck it, and it fell backwards, stunned.

It's screech filled the night sky. Thunder roared in the purple dragon's ears. A shot of lightning striked the sky and revealed the tumbling ape. It was moving towards him. Spyro dodged instead of defending himself. Another long lick of flames emerged from his open snout. As it was burning, Spyro raked his claws along it's throat.

It screeched again and tumbled to Spyro. It slammed hard into his side, and once more pushed him over. This was not a little ape, either. It was a quite massive ape. Spyro swatted the ape with his tailblade again and scrambled up the rocks to face the undefeated enemy.

The ape twitched and bore his claws into the rock and soft soil below. Spyro lunged at it this time, pinned it, and breathed ice into it's face. The ice moved up the ape's body. As it was now completely frozen, Spyro whacked it with his horns. The ice layer crumbled off the ape and it sailed away into the sky.

It's body landed down on the stones with a crack. The ape screamed and moved towards Spyro. The dragon swept down and knocked the ape off his feet with this tail. The ape fell backwards, and managed to scratch Spyro across his wing. The purple dragon roared and couldn't help praising his success as the ape's head split open on the rocks.

Shaking the pain from his body, Spyro moved on through the parted leaves he had moved from the bush. He felt the roots tearing away at his scales. With a low growl he walked on through the forest. It had almost been two hours. The sun had already started to emerge through the rain. Spyro decided to go back.

Spyro spread open his wings and glided through the forest. He could already see Cynder's black figure disappearing into the cave. Spyro tilted his wing and dove down towards the earth, and swooped into the cave. Everyone in there was now awake. Spyro folded his wings and padded to Cynder.

"Any luck?" he asked his mate, as she settled down in the moss bed.

"None at all...And what happened to you?" the black dragoness asked Spyro.

"I got attacked...By an ape. It already had blood on it's claws though." Spyro flopped beside her.

"You should've smelt the blood," Cynder muttered. "It would have detected who it killed."

Spyro only grumbled, "I know," before he laid his head down on the moss. He was now tired, tired of fighting and tired of being awake for two hours looking for his friend. The purple dragon's tailblade curled up next to his paws. He closed his eyes to fall to sleep, but none came.

Vytrl nudged Spyro's side to tell him to wake. "There's hog, Spyro. Wake up your mate and tell her she'll need to eat some too." With that he slunk away towards the boar and ripped himself a piece. The smell met Spyro's nose. Immediately he sat up and padded over to the boar.

"Wake up your mate," growled Vytrl more sternly. Spyro did as he was told, and chomped hungrily on the boar. Cynder moved up beside him, and made her meal. She was about to turn around to go back to sleep, for she was still very tired, despite a thirty minute rest already, before she was stopped. Vytrl had stopped her.

"I'd like to know what you two were doing out last night," the blue dragon muttered under his breath as he chomped down on the leg bone of the hog. Spyro looked at the dragon, who's blue gaze was fixed on both Cynder and him. Slowly, Cynder padded back to the blue dragon.

"We were trying to find our friend, Talloness. We've told you about her. We were going to send out a search party if she wasn't back by morning. And she's not back yet. So Spyro woke me up and the two of us went to go see if she was camping somewhere nearby. Other than the squirrel I saw and the ape Spyro saw, we didn't see anything."

With a sad look to the earth Cynder lowered her head. "That's where we were. Right Spyro?"

The purple dragon nodded. "Now we only need sleep again before we send another search for her. I hope we can stay a couple of extra hours before we leave?" Vytrl nodded before padding away into the light. He told them he would go and get some moss, water, and food for them. Spyro would appreciate it.

Cynder and him walked back over to the moss beds as Posion and Icy kept a close eye out for Talloness. They were wide awake, so indeed they would do a much better job. And since it was morning, it would be easier to see the dragoness moving around. So they kept watch.

Vytrl came back with some lunch, water, and a couple strands of moss. He laid it down beside Spyro and Cynder, and flew off again to look for more. A couple hours later Spyro and Cynder woke up from their nap and walked over to Poison and Icy, who were still wide awake.

"See anything?" Spyro asked as he sat down beside Icy.

"Nothing much. Other than a bird that landed to get some seed." The blue dragoness sighed.

"That's okay, we should be leaving anytime now." Spyro looked at the sky. It was noon.

"Just leave Vytrl a message in the dirt," growled Poison with a snort.

"No...I'd like to say good bye and thank you." Spyro eyed the green dragoness.

Vytrl flew back down into the cave. Spyro watched the blue dragon's claws thunder against the stones. He laid down the moss, water, and food. "There you go. I hope it helps your journey back to the city." Vytrl was about to turn around and get back to life, before Spyro stopped him.

"We all," Spyro stammered as he eyed Poison, "want to say thank you for letting us stay overnight. Poison's wound might have gotten infected if you have not let us stay. So again, l'm just going to say thank you." The purpled dragon opened his wings and moved to the sky. "Good bye, Vytrl."

"Good bye, young dragon. I hope good luck is on your side on finding your friend and while you're on your quest." And with that, slunk back underneath the cave to stay until he passed on many years later. Spyro took one last glance at the cave, before flying to the noon skies.

The dragons flew on until the night caved in on them. Worried about the creatures of the night, the four young dragons laid down and covered their heads with their wings. Apes screamed in the night. The cool breeze of night drifted down on them. Spyro took a quick gulp.

Then he decided now was the appropriate time to go and look for his friend. Struggling to his feet, the purple dragon slid along the trees and into the forest, leaving his mate and her friends behind. It was time to look for and find Talloness, bring her back, and make sure she was alright.

The people in the dragon city were usually pretty good about healing most wounds. Once they got back, Poison should be okay. But they needed to worry about finding Talloness. She had been gone for one whole day. And there was no scent trail of the dragoness anywhere.

Rain fell again. Spyro sighed and slid along the forest's trail, keeping his eyes wide open. A couple of nearby apes scuffled in the darkness, then stood still. Thunder boomed in the night sky again. He walked along the trails of the darkness and sniffed all the bushes, as if to see the dragoness there. She wasn't.

Spyro was about to give up all of his hope. He thought all this searching and they would be just fine. Talloness needed to be found. She was either alive or dead. And that meant she was going to have to show herself sometime soon. The darkness swallowed all the light from the trees. Daytime was the only time that the four dragons could move.

Search parties would be sent every hour once they got back to the dragon city, if they didn't have her with them of course. But so far, nothing happened. Not even a beetle scurried among the moist roots of the trees. He was able to take care of himself out there too. He wouldn't let some pesky monkeys get underneath his skin.

There was a growl in the corner of the bushes. Spyro peered down inside of it. There was an ape guarding something down below. It saw Spyro, sprang to his face, and attempted to strike him with open claws. But Spyro killed it with a thump to the head. He growled before parting the bushes.

He saw something big and lumpy at the bottom of the hole. It was dark, and it smelled of flesh and meat. Apparently it had been killed yesterday. Spyro wiggled into the hole and sniffed. He couldn't take in the scent well enough. It was now only the smell of rotting meat and bones.

A flash of lightning shook Spyro's scales as a familiar body lay before Spyro.

Talloness.

**I'm sorry if I made you guys sad that Talloness died. I just needed to pull my readers into the story. I hope this chapter was longer than the last one! :) I hope that you stick around for the fifth chapter. Wow. Not a lot of chapters in this story at all. Well I wish you a good day, and keep on reading!**


	5. Chapter 5

**Hello my readers! I know that it has taken a long while to update... But don't you worry about that. I am not quitting this story, no matter how much I ignore it. Well, I suppose that is all you need to know about the updating of this story. Please Read and Review. I am much more encouraged to write if people leave reviews down. Enjoy chapter 5.**

**5**

The darkness inside of the heart of Spyro flooded out into the world. Cynder's best friend, Talloness, was dead now. And there was nothing he could do about it. Unless she were still alive a small bit. But with wounds such like hers, there probably wouldn't be any chance to save her. Spyro knew it was Cynder's fault...Even though she didn't know Talloness would meet a camp of rouge apes.

Spyro looked around his location. Apparently there weren't many apes inside of this rouge camp. But that didn't mean there could not be apes on patrol or something. Talloness was probably going to be their next meal. But that was Spyro's last concern. He needed to get Talloness out of the hole and quickly. Before more apes might return to their small rouge camp.

Spyro clamped his jaws around Talloness' neck and dragged her away. It was quite a struggle to remove her from the hole. The scales on her slimy neck were hard to grasp. There probably wouldn't be a way to get her out. Although he did manage to drag her out of the hole, flying back home would be an even harder challenge. What would he say to the others?

Spyro leapt out to the sky with Talloness in his jaws, but barely managed to get off the ground. Theire would have to be another way. Perhaps the apes had some twigs and rope in their small camp. Spyro whirled around, reluctant to scan for things for too long. Then he noticed a small strand of rope hanging loose from a barrell not too far away from her. Spyro took the chance and yanked the rope.

He and the long rope strand were soon tumbling backwards down the hill. Spyro grunted a small bit, climbed to his feet, and tied a small peice of the rope around Talloness' neck. He tied the other end of the rope to his tail, and flapped his wings. The rope had already slid down to the back of his tail, and was cutting along the tail blade. Spyro undid the rope and tried his ankle.

This time it did work. As the rain and howling winds lashed down at the two, Spyro couldn't help but notice feeling sorry. He or Cynder should have gone along with the young dragoness. But now she was dead. And what would happen to dear Cynder when she found out that her best friend was dead, at ape hands? Well, paws. What would she do to repay her old friend.

There was nothing now. Nothing to help Talloness. And as Spyro flapped his wings quickly to get from the clearing, a rustle in the bush got his attention. Spyro whirled around, a screech embraced him, and fourteen apes hared into the clearing, darting along the narrow corridors into an attempt to catch the flailing purple dragon, who was desperatly trying to save his mate's best friend, who was by now probably dead.

But Spyro would not stop. He took another massive flap of his large wings, and lifted easily off into the air, the dead body tied around his firm ankle. Thank his dragon ancestors that his ankles were powerful. Or else he might not even had the bones to carry this dragoness around the place. Spyro countined to fly towards the camp. The rain and lightning had suddenly stopped. And he had escaped the apes.

The morning light was now coming back to Spyro. The others had not even noticed that he was gone. Spyro dove towards the camp. There were no good landing spots there, either. Trying to hover to the ground instead, Spyro's wing hit a thin tree branch and he was soon toppling to the ground, and landed...Right on top of Cynder! The black dragoness growled a tiny bit, before noticing Spyro on top of her.

"Spyro!" she yelped. "We can't do that here..." Her voice trailed off, embarrassed. She didn't want any of her friends to see Spyro right on top of her. She rolled to the side, and the purple dragon slid off his mate's stomach. He was silent for a while. He did not know how to explain all of this to his mate. Cynder noticed that he was quiet and she turned towards him with concern. "What's wrong, Spyro?"

"Oh, nothing...Well, actually, there is something wrong. And I don't think that you're going to like it either. But I'm going to have to tell you anyway. It's important. Wake up the others." Spyro motioned to the other dragonesses that were not very far away, all of them sleeping peacefully. Unaware that Spyro and Cynder were awake. Spyro put a little more force in his voice as he spoke. "Now!"

Cynder nodded quickly a couple of times, before she padded over hurriedly to Icy. The dragoness was sound asleep, but Cynder didn't want to wake her up. Although, what Spyro was about to say must've been important. She nudged her blue friend. The ice dragoness mumbled under her breath again, before she leaned up and glared at Cynder. "What's the problem, Cyn?"

"Spyro wants to wake us all up. I dunno why...He just does. Perhaps you can wake up Poison for me?" Icy sighed a bit, before getting to her paws and trooping towards the lime green dragoness. She jabbed at the dragoness' ribs. Poison growled at Icy, but got to her feet. "See?" Cynder added. "Everyone is awake now, Spyro. You're ready to talk to us now?"

"Umm...Yea. I am...Well, I wasn't here all night at all. I was looking for Talloness. And I have found her, too. There's...Not very good hopes we can heal her...If she's alive...But I flew here from all night...And here is her body...I'm sorry Cynder...When I got there...She was already dead..." Spyro revealed the body tied to his ankle. He cut off the string and flopped of his paws.

"Oh my!" Poison yelped, "that's horrible! Cynder, what'll we do?" But the black dragoness ignored her friend. She stared at the helpless, limp body. It was her fault. Had Cynder not asked her friend for firewood, she would still have been alive. A silent tear dropped from Cynder's cheek. The black dragoness collapsed on to floor, looking helpess for the friend, that didn't live long at all.

"Don't walk around feeling sorry for yourself, Cyn." Spyro had apparently gotten off his paws and walked over to his mate. She looked up at him. The purple dragon that had helped her many times in her life. He grinned at her. But the celebration had stopped. The wind picked up. There was a rustle in the bushes. Spyro looked around. Were they getting ambushed?

Icy scrambled to her feet as well. She noticed exactly where the rustle had come from. With a growl, she lowered her front legs. The pounce position. She waited for the attacker's first move. However, the bush did nothing more. It stood completely still. The wind had stopped. The suspicion level died hideously. But Icy was still glaring at the bushes.

Icy's pale blue eyes narrowed, as the bush began to rumble again. "Look out!" she screamed, as she dashed towards the back of the clearing. Cynder's claws flexed at the sound of Icy's horrible scream. The black dragoness beat her wings a couple of times, and padded over to her friend to get a good look at her. Wondering what was wrong, Cynder, looked down to Icy.

"What's wrong, Icy?" she asked.

"T-that bush was moving again." The ice dragoness shivered.

"Then we need to leave. Get Poison and Spyro. Now is not the time for trouble."

Then, a massive gray paw emerged from the bushes that it was hidden inside of. A low growl splintered from the mouth of the beast. A couple of curved horns revealed itself from inside of the bush. A gray snout then came out like the paw. A pair of gleaming red eyes approached the dragonesses, until a whole body was visible from among the trees that were scattered behind them.

"Hmm...A couple of lost dragonesses? This could get interesting." With a threatening bark, the dragon, who was much larger than Cynder had ever seen before, walked over to the two of them. "Hmm...I'd like to see how you two can fight." With a growl, the massive dragon lowered his front paws, and was about to spring. Suddenly, the purple hero leapt in threw the brambles and pounded into the newcomer's head.

"Cynder, Icy, get Poison to shelter." The purple dragon pointed to the sides of a nearby enclave. "This one looks pretty tough. After you two get her up there, help me out." The two dragoness nodded and hurried to what Spyro told them to do. Then, the purple dragon, circled the gray beast. He was even larger than Malefor. The beast was so large, it could tower over the three young dragons, who were stacked on top of one another.

"You're right, purple boy. I'm a tough fighter. You'd better get your group of rascals back down here, or I'll tear you apart, slowly, peice by peice." The gray dragon smirked evilly. But he was so calm and so unafraid of the little dragons below him. "Show me what you've got in you!" The gray dragon flung a massive paw, but Spyro just rolled out of the way. The gray dragon growled.

"See? You're no match," Spyro threatened. The purple dragon blasted a hot stream of fire in the attacker's face. The gray dragon backed up and screeched. He then roared, streamed plasma at Spyro, and whacked the purple dragon off his feet. Spyro gasped in pain, and clutched his leg, where the plasma had hit him. The purple dragon limped to his feet. The stinging in his leg was getting much worse.

"I'm a match for you!" the gray dragon barked before tumbling towards Spyro. He slammed right into the purple dragon. Spyro yelped, and much to his surprise, the two dragonesses were already coming back to help. Cynder swerved towards the gray dragon's tail. Icy swerved towards his leg. Spyro got to his feet and lunged for the throat. The gray dragon couldn't keep track of the three of them.

"Come and get me!" Cynder teased as she slowly nipped at the dragon's scales that lined his tail. He was managing every move he knew to get the black dragoness off his tail, but Icy was nipping his legs quickly, and moving to another spot, like a flea. The gray dragon roared in rage. There was no way that he would be able to beat the three dragons. The gray dragon got another idea instead.

He lifted up his tail, that still had Cynder nipping the scales, and slammed her into a nearby tree. Cynder gasped and fell to the floor. Icy was moving towards Cynder, but the gray dragon bashed the life from her, and she yelped, tumbling towards Cynder. Spyro navigated his way around the gray dragon's firm build, and grasped his neck. The gray dragon screamed.

"Okay, okay, you win. But don't think I won't be back." The dragon flung Spyro off his neck, and flapped into the sky, disappearing from the dragons' view. Spyro noticed the two dragonesses on the floor, and padded over to them. Spyro lowered his head to indentify them.

"Are you two okay?" he asked them.

"We're fine." Cynder got to her paws, along with Icy.

"Listen, we need to leave, soon. We're constantly getting ambushed."

"Yea, we are," Icy snarled, as she stuck an herb to a wound along her hind flank. She grimaced in pain.

"Let's go get Poison." Spyro motioned towards the enclave.

"Okay...Sure." Icy and Cynder, flapped over to the cave and retrieved the lime green dragoness.

"Why didn't I get to help? My wound is doing much better!" she snapped at Spyro. "I don't need baby-sitting!"

"It was for your own good!" Spyro growled back.

"Good?" Poison snarled. "There was nothing good about what you did. Vytrl did a completely fine job helping me heal all my wounds. I don't need to be baby-sitted every time there is a fight!" Poison turned around. "And you don't need to help me fly, either!" she added. Then she beat her wings and reached to the sky. Spyro and the other dragoness were still on the land. The purpled dragon sighed.

"Don't worry, Spyro. You know Poison. She can get rough sometimes," Cynder encouraged her mate. "But what's more important now is too follow her. Make sure we know where she is going. We can't seperate more members of our group. They might get killed, captured, or missing." Spyro listened to his mate's words, but said nothing, keeping his head low.

"That's not my problem, Cynder," Spyro finally said. "My only problem is that we're at war with a tribe, one that is hunting us down. We can't escape it. If we return to the city, we'll do nothing but get them endangered as well. I'm stuck on ideas." The purple dragon thrashed a small bit. "I have this huge headache now." With that he slunk to his paws and flapped his wings.

"Spyro..." Cynder began to say, but nothing more was said. Cynder drooped her wings with disappointment before she, too, flapped away into the distance, following Spyro into the morning light. Icy followed the three other dragons as well, but kept a while away from them. She would not get too close to them. Spyro wanted to be alone, and Cynder was probably disappointed with something.

Cynder was not that far behind Spyro, who was making sure he was well ahead of Cynder. The black dragoness rolled her eyes, and she beat her wings a couple of times to catch up with him. Spyro turned his head a tiny bit and noticed that she was much closer than before. Spyro stifled a gasp and darted forward, closer to Poison now. That's when Cynder gave up.

Poison was just so mad! How could Spyro have done that to her? Her wounds were fine, now. And he kept her inside of that miserable cave, when she could have been helping! The lime green dragoness thrashed in rage. She uttered a low growl and looked behind her. She could see the three others following her. At least she wasn't alone, but Spyro was right behind her.

Spyro kept glanced behind him to see where Cynder was. She was closer again! Spyro yelped and flapped faster, swerving out of the wind currents and making sure Cynder could not catch up that time. Why did she keep trying to come closer? Was there something that she needed to say? Spyro saw her flying behind him, but he ignored her at his best ability.

Icy noticed this new activity of what was happening. Spyro kept flying closer to Poison, but obviously she wanted him no where near her, so she flew forward. Cynder kept getting closer to Spyro, but just like Poison, he wanted her no where near him, and flew closer to Poison. Icy growled a small bit before swooping next to Cynder and find out what was going on.

"Cynder, what's happening?" the ice dragoness asked, curiously, eyeing Spyro and Poison before them. Apparently there was something happening between the three? Icy wasn't someone that wanted to get left out at all. She wanted to get involved in all of this, and find out a simple way too stop it. What was up with all of these arguements? Now just wasn't the time!

"You see, Spyro doesn't want to get back to the Dragon city, because he thinks that we're threatening their lives. But I think we should go back and get the most help that we can. Poison is still mad at Spyro for not letting her fight, and now I'm beginning to think that Spyro's mad at me." Cynder looked down at the floor of the forest that were flying over as she spoke.

"Don't worry, Cynder. I'll go talk to them. Although I don't want them to start getting mad at me!" The ice dragoness chuckled a bit, trying to alighten the mood, but when Cynder just grumbled, Icy decided to not even try alightening the mood, and not even bother doing anything about it. The icy dragoness managed a couple of wing beats before catching up to the angered purple dragon.

"Uhh...Spyro?" Icy asked. The purple dragon looked over his shoulder at the ice dragoness that was flying beside him. He was still glaring at her a small bit, but didn't say anything to her. Then, as if to tell her she could speak, he gave Icy a small nod with his head, then continued to be silent. The ice dragoness cleared her voice with a grunt before she continued.

"Listen. Cynder's right about getting back to the city. Don't start yelling at me, please. I'm not on anyone's side right now," the ice dragoness mumbled. "Well, please just follow Cynder's advice. If we don't get back to the city, where would we go? What would we do? Who would help us, and if anyone did, how much time would it take for them to fly here before they arrive?" Icy was making lots of good points.

Spyro thought about all these questions before he answered her. "We'd go to the Flavkors. There are many dragons, griffons, and phenioxs to help us there. They're all about getting their noses into others' bussiness. We would ask them for help. Also, they would be the ones to help us. And they wouldn't have to fly anywhere, we would already be there." Spyro grunted as he spoke.

"The Flavkors!" Icy gasped. "They want nothing to do with the dragons of Warfang." As she spoke, apparently he didn't want the conversation to last much longer. He picked up his speed rate and moved easily ahead of Icy, leaving her there trembling in rage. Why would he not listen? The Flavkors were nothing but feathers and scales of violence and battle. They only helped their closest allies!

Icy gave in to the fight that she wouldn't win. With that, she turned around and glided uneasily back to Cynder, who was staring at her wide-eyed. "Did it go well?" the black dragoness asked her friend. The ice dragon just grunted, meaning "no". Cynder sighed. "Then I guess Poison will have to try it." Cynder left her friend's presence to meet up with the green dragoness a couple adult dragons away.

"Poison, I need you to talk to Spyro. Will you do it for me? Please?" Poison hissed in fury.

"There's no way I'd talk to that baby-sitter! What would you want to talk to him for? Tell him I'm sorry? Oh, hey there Spyro! I'm sorry for being a brat, please forgive me?" Poison almost raked her claws along one of Cynder's wings, but decided better of it and didn't do it instead. "It should be him telling me he's sorry! Keeping me away from the fight like that. I'm healed!"

Cynder sighed. "He was only doing it to protect you, Poison. Spyro just didn't want you to get hurt. It wasn't his fault. If the three of us got hurt, you could have snuck off and warned the city to hunt down this guy. Not everyone could of gotten hurt. We don't want anyone to end up like..." Cynder paused mid-sentence, thinking of how it was her fault the dragoness had died. "Talloness."

"We're stronger than that coward ever was!" The poison dragoness howled in rage, and rammed her horns into Cynder's flank.

"Ugh! Poison, _stop!_" Cynder yanked off the poison dragoness, until she was flapping her wings, confused.

"Hey! What's going on?" Spyro had overheard the conversation, and was now flying next to Cynder. "Cynder, what happened?" His eyes were full of concern. He was ready to help his mate.

"Poison won't talk to you. Then she overreacted and started to attack me." Cynder shrugged off the pain and scowled at the poison dragoness, who was glaring at the two other dragons.

"Poison! Why would you attack Cynder?"

"She wanted me to talk to you...About going to the City."

"Cynder...You know I don't want to put them in danger..."

"But we could get help there! The Flavkors don't want us!" Cynder barked.

"Perhaps not...We could go get help from Avalar!"

Cynder growled. "Isn't that also putting them in danger, too?"

Spyro looked at his paws. "Yeah...You're right. We start heading back to the city!"

Icy cheered from a short distance away, and flew over to meet her friends that were flying ahead of her. "There is still a lot of time left in this day," the ice dragoness muttered. "So maybe we can find something to eat and drink before we start to go back?" The purple dragon nodded at the ice dragoness, who just smirked before flying beside the others, now speechless.

The four began to fly off into the rising sunlight. There wasn't much more to the day that flying. A small drizzle had caught them off wing for a while, but they were eventually back in the air. Poison was still getting pestered to forget about what Spyro did. The purple dragon even asked her to have a private conversation. And he even said sorry to the lime green dragoness!

Although Posion got over the whole thing. She then just listened to the wind and would fly in quick loops. She would sometimes play tag with the others, to lack of not doing anything. Conversations were usual. They would all talk about which way the City would be, or how far they would fly. The first day of flight would stll be a while. The dusk was already taking itself in.

Cynder sighed. "It already feels like a week," she joked, as she poked Icy in the ribs. The ice dragoness scowled and turned upside down in flight.

"Well, you're not lying," the ice dragoness said.

"Hmm...Thanks Icy. You're not letting us down." Cynder gave her new best friend a reasurring pat on the shoulder.

Icy just smirked before turning over in flight.

Spyro and Poison were watching what was ahead and below them. "See anything?" Spyro asked the poison dragoness quietly.

"Nope," she replied, "here might be a nice place to get water, though."

"Yea..." Spyro agreed. Then he turned towards the others. "C'mon everyone, we're going to get a drink down here." The others agreed and began to take flight after Spyro.

They landed on the compact stones, and Spyro sniffed the area. "Hmm..." he mumbled. "Smells as though apes have been by here." The purple dragon sniffed deeper. "And...A griffon." Spyro uttered a low growl.

"Do you think the griffon might have come from the Flavkors?" Cynder asked as she padded up beside her mate.

"Maybe...C'mon, he's still around here." Spyro got a quick sniff of the lake and lifted his head. "This way!"

The four dragons bolted into the trees, and arrived at a clearing. There, standing in the middle, was a huge, unnaturally black griffon. Her beak was twisted in hatred of the dragons. She extended her massive wings, and clawed her way to Spyro and Cynder, along with the others that were standing behind them. The griffon lowered her head to their eye level.

"Well...This is not something you would see everyday?" she asked them, circling their small group. Spyro closed his eyes to listen to what the griffon had to say. "In case you were wondering, I'm not from the Flavkors. That group of rotten traitors. All they're into now is mice tiblets!" She scowled, and approached the group, closer than before. "Well?" she asked. Her voice, for a griffon, was no doubt beautiful. But she was so black!

"Well what? Challenge you to a fight? I think not!" Spyro clawed the earth to glare at the black griffon. This beast may have been huge, but griffons were well known for all kinds of weaknesses that they had. They weren't too difficult to fight. Spyro just kept glaring at her, and rolled his eyes lamely. "I don't think you're going to challenge us, either?" Spyro added.

"No...Don't worry about that. C'mon, I'll show you a place to find shelter."

"H-hold on a moment!" Spyro barked. He then turned towards his friends. "Should we trust her?" he asked.

"If it's for shelter, yes, I suppose."

"Okee, then." Spyro turned back towards the griffon. "Show us!"

"If you please." Then she spread out her wings and flapped away. The dragons followed her.

The all landed on the steps of the cave that the black griffon lived inside of. "Oh, I almost forgot. Meet Dark." She motioned towards a young black dragon inside of the cave.

"You look familar!" Cynder gasped, eyeing the dragon. "Like you were that dragon ruling that tribe!"

"I do, don't I? I get that comment a lot..." The black dragon looked at his paws.

"Well, it's true, right?" she asked.

"Well..." The black dragon looked as though he had something to say.

"Yes, Dark?" Cynder asked him.

"I'm...I'm his son."

**Surprise, surprise! Dark was actually the black dragon's son! Huh! In case you didn't understand what I meant when I said, "I'm his son." So... Yea. I've been writing this forever. And I needed some action at the end. XD Enjoy and stay for the next chapter. Please review this story... I need the reveiws. Stick around for the next chapter. Becoming active again! There's literally nothing I need to do, at all!**


	6. Chapter 6

**Hello again everyone! Welcome to chapter 6. More than halfway to 10 chapters. I'm so excited! Well... I guess let's get back into shape. I'm going to be writing longer chapters now. In a range 5000 - 8000. Oh and please review. Over 300 visitors have previewed my write and not one of them has reviewed it. I will tear this down, if I don't get that many reviews. Enjoy chapter 6. XD**

**6 **

The group of four dragons were blank. How could there have been something so cruel like that? Dark kept staring at his paws. The black griffon, who now said her name was Shattering, walked over to Dark and moved a protective wing over his broad shoulders. Even though he felt more comfortable, he still continued to glare at his paws. He wasn't happy about who his parents were.

"And there's nothing wrong with that," Shattering growled to the younger dragons. "He is a very nice dragon, let alone who his father may have been. And if you say one word about it, I'll rip you apart." With that, she backed away from Dark and padded to the further end of the den. But Spyro couldn't help himself. If Dark was the black dragon's son, what was he doing here?

Spyro wanted to go and talk to him. The purple dragon padded over to Dark and sat down beside him. The black dragon, who looked much like his father, glanced up beside him. He noticed the purple dragon sitting down beside him. Dark already knew why Spyro was there. "Go on, Sir. You can ask me anything you want." Dark decided to make himself more comfortable by lying down.

"Thank you, Dark. Well, all I'm here to ask is, if you're the black dragon's son, why are you staying here with Shattering?" At first, Dark didn't reply. He though for a couple of moments. There wasn't much to answer in that question, however. Dark looked up to Spyro, who was still glaring back down at him, impatient for him to answer. Then Dark answered.

"You see, his name is not the Black Dragon, it is Perlong. Perlong was mates with someone a long time ago. They had a child, me. I was very happy with my parents. Until the older leader, Qusit, loved my mother. He wanted her all to himself. He stole my mother from Perlong, and demanded to start the royal family. For his mate's own protection, Perlong killed my mother. She was totally okay with it. Afterwards Perlong wasn't very pleased he had to kill his own mate. For revenge, and for the throne, Perlong killed Qusit."

"I was enraged at my father. As you noticed, I don't even call him Dad anymore. I wanted to leave the abyss very quickly. But he wanted me to stay. If his mate wasn't there, he wanted me there. But I didn't want to be there. I called a message to the stars, and Shattering here noticed it. She came down into the abyss at night, and she rescued me. And now we're here, hiding from that horrible tribe. We are living quite nicely in this cave, if you asked me." With that, Dark finished the question.

Spyro let it all in. "Thanks for letting me know that, Dark." Spyro began to pad away, before he stopped. "One more question," he added. "Did Perlong name you Dark?"

Dark looked up at Spyro. "No, he named me Sogeo. Shattering renamed me Dark."

"Thanks, Dark," Spyro said, before he slipped back up to his friends. Shattering glanced down at them.

"You guys want to stay here for the night?" she asked them.

"No, thank you," Cynder replied, agreed with the others.

"Okay..." Shattering replied, before turning to the entrance of the den. "I'm going to hunt. Anything you guys want before you leave?"

"Boar, mallard, and squirrel?" Poison guessed. "We're fond of those food options." The others nodded. Shattering dipped her head in approval. Then she extended her massive black wings and flapped away into the darkness. Dark was already curled up in the other side of the cave. He always seemed to twitch in his sleep. There wasn't anything comfortable about him though.

Poison glanced at Dark. He wasn't a very noticeable dragon from this angle. He blent right in to the shadows of the musty cave. There was going to be a disapproving event happening soon at the dragon city, she just then noticed. A feeling. A battle? A war? Poison closed her purple eyes and looked up at the cave's ceiling. Old inscriptions were drawn neatly around the sides of the wall.

Dark noticed Poison being awake. He got to his paws and padded over to her. "So...You're leaving tonight?" he asked her. The poison dragoness jumped when she heard the black dragon's voice that has snuck it's way behind her. She looked over her shoulder and caught a glimpse of his wonderful black scales. Just like Cynder's scales, except a tad bit darker in shades.

"Oh...Yea..." Poison glanced at her feet. "We're just waiting for Shattering to get back. There's been a lot of trouble lately. We need to get back to the Dragon City in time. I sense something horrible is bound to happen there." Poison extended one of her wings, gave is a touch with her tail blade, then set it back down beside her. The lime green dragoness sighed.

"Hmm...I wish I could be a help to the city. As a matter of fact, I want to go live at the city. It sounds so amazing. How many dragons live there. How many shops there are around that area. Sounds like a place where dreams come true..." Dark wondered about how the city might look. A moment later he looked down at Poison again, blinking his massive pale olive eyes. "How does the city look, anyway?" he asked.

"Well...I don't know where to begin. Umm..." Poison did know where to begin. Town Square. She just didn't know how to describe it. "First...There's the town square. The floors are made entirely of cobblestone. There are four buildings on every side of the Town Square. Each building represents a common element. Fire, Earth, Electricity, and Ice. There are gardens around the Town Square, that many visiting dragons can come look at."

"When you exit the Town Square from the only way out of it, into the city, you'll see a long corridor of houses, buildings, and towers. Each tower is almost built the same exact way. The longest tower is the tower of the Guardians. The Guardians teach students, sleep, eat, and gain more knowledge in the tower. Each tower is colored the same yellowish-orange color."

"Then they're the houses. The houses are mostly for visiting dragons, or the ones that love to live next to the Paintings of Wisdom. I forgot to mention those. The Paintings of Wisdoms were drawings by the Royal Four many years before the city was built. They made a transplant on the drawings and moved them into the city. Many dragons love to study and admire these paintings."

"Then there's the Main Hall. The Main Hall is full of dragons that live there. Each house has the same wooden floors and old, classical look to it. They even shaved the wood with Eagle Claw, so the smell of the wood lasts a long time. In other buildings, the flooring is made out of carpet. These bulidings are the most expensive. I lived in one of the wooden floored buildings."

"No matter the flooring, each building is set with a nice wooden sleeping spot, with cheetah fur covers to keep comfortable. The cheetahs donated the fur for us dragons. The houses each have the wall paintings that look like the sky. Each house has a nice room to it. Beautiful rubrics from a long time ago, that stand inside glass and are held up on the most lovely pedastals!"

Dark took in the information. "Wow! That place sounds wonderful." Just at that moment, the black griffon Shattering swooped into the cave and looked around.

"Hello there, little ones." Shattering laid down the meals on the floor. "Here is your dessert. What have you two been talking about?" She motioned towards Dark and Poison, and before the lime green dragoness could even explain, Dark jumped up towards the griffon he's lived with for a couple of weeks and answered, brightly. Apparently he was excited for the Dragon City.

"Poison here was talking about the Dragon City. It sounded so wonderful and amazing. I couldn't even bear it. She expained about these beautiful Paintings that scattered the walls of these hige corridor, and how many dragons love to study it. She also explained the houses that they have there. It sounds so cool. She also expained that there was a tower in the city called the tower of the Guardians!"

"Charmed," the black griffon muttered underneath her breath. "Well, wake up your friends, young dragoness. It's time to eat." She walked to the other side of the cave, and decided to eat something caught a long time ago. She snatched it from a crevice in the cave wall. The food storage room. She ate silently as she watched the dragoness tackle her three other friends. Each one of them woke up quietly.

"Hey, Poison...Why're you waking us now?" Spyro was the first to wake, and as he got to his paws, and he stared at Poison as she glanced at the food. "Ooh, why didn't you just say so?" Spyro climbed over to the food, and snatched out the plumpest boar. Cynder creaked her pale blue eyes open, and noticed the purple dragon snacking on the thick boar legs.

"Oh, no you don't!" she growled playfully, as she raced over to the boar, and slid out next to Spyro. Spyro was turned over on his side. He caught a glimpse of the beautiful black dragoness, his mate, and he swatted her playfully as well. Soon, Cynder and Spyro had their teeth clamped to one end of the boar, and had begun a swift game of tug-of-war. And so far, Spyro was winning.

"That's...Mine!" Spyro yelped as he yanked on the leg of the boar, and flew backwards in speed. His body was then slumped on the floor of the cave. Poison was laughing her tail blade off, next to Dark, and Icy rolled her eyes. Cynder only had the leg of the boar in her mouth, and Spyro had the whole entire boar connected to his small bit of it. Spyro laughed, spit out the leg of boar he had, and pranced around Cynder's small bit. "I win!" he chocked.

"No fair..." Cynder grumbled underneath her breath, picking herself off the ground. She shook her scales, and neatly brushed each wing backwards. She walked to the side of the cave Shattering had gone to, and silently ate like she did. Icy noticed the pile of food and snagged a mallard to herself. Poison helped herself to the smallest squirrel in the pile that there was. Dark feasted on a small pig.

As they all ate, Shattering got to her legs, and stretched out her talons. She made a soft caw before ruffling her wing feathers. She padded over to the side of the cave, and blinked a few times. "Well, I think that settles it," she murmured, as she glanced outside of the cave. The wonderful moon of the night was still dancing beautifully in the sky. Shattering stepped outside of the cave. "If you're leaving soon, anyway."

"Oh...We weren't thinking of leaving you _so_ soon!" gasped Cynder. "We were hoping to stay a few more hours, if that's alright with you, anyway..." Cynder pushed aside her leg and got another peice of boar stomach from Spyro's boar. As she did that, Spyro snapped at her muzzle playfully. She teased him by waving the boar's stomach on top of his head. The black dragoness smirked.

"Stay as long as you like. But there is another thing. I'd like to know where you come from." The black griffon sat down on the ground. Apparently she was in too long stories. As she made herself comfortable, Spyro glanced nervously. That single question had just aroused his greatest suspicion. Dragons didn't trust griffons anyway. But who would she go to? It's not like she had quarrel with them anyway.

"You see, we used to live back at the City. The Dragon City. It was trading day...What, three, four nights ago? I believe so. Well, we were captured by the Morvais Tribe. The one that your father rules, Dark. We escaped, and recently our friend that had come with us, Talloness, had died. We were ambushed by a massive gray dragon. He never said his name. But then we found here." Spyro paused.

"Interesting, young dragon," Shattering said. "Well, I guess that's a wrap. You're City Dragons, aren't you?" She looked around the cave. "City Dragons come and go as they please. After all, I do have quite a few friends in that city. Many dragons are interested in the magnificent wings us griffons have, if you didn't know." She flexed one of her very own black wings. "Especially my wings," she added, plainly.

"Why just your wings?" Cynder asked, as she laid down the bones that she had finished off. "Why're your wings so special?" Icy looked over at Cynder, murmured something that involved the word, _shush_, and glanced back at Shattering, who was ready to make her reply to the young dragons that were scattered before her. She only smirked before she continued.

"I'm an unnatural black griffon, of course. Our kind are much more powerful and bigger than the average tan colored griffon. The tan griffons with the white heads resemble more lion and eagle than any other kind of griffon. My grandfather was born naturally from the rarest black lion, and the Black Hawk Eagle. The family spread down. That's why me and my family are all being hunted. Also, my little brother was jealous of my color. He wanted to black."

"Oh," Cynder replied. "That's weird. So are you kind of cool and a bit more special than other griffons?" She continued to gobble on her legs that she had just picked, and shoved more bones with the other ones. She tore off thick, lumpy bulbs of meat, and Dark stared at the bits that she ripped clean off the legs of her animals, and left lying around the tiny cave they were all hidden inside of.

"Yes, I suppose I am, just a tiny bit more special, anyway." Shattering laughed again a small bit. "I used to live with the Flavkors. You heard of them? And their disgusting mouse tiblets, yuck!" She growled a bit. "All the females envied me for my colors. All the males mourned for them to have me. I always said no. I'm not planning for a mate at all. Unlike you dragons. Always grow up and have mates."

Before the black griffoness could utter another word from her starched beak, a massive crackle sounded from the trees. The whole group turned around, and the same, massive gray paw as the day before emerged into the cave. "I finally found you!" he growled underneath his horrid breath. "I've been searching for you for hours! And now I've got you trapped inside of a cave."

"I-is that the dragon you spoke of?" asked Shattering as she glared at the massive figure. "You sure were right about it being big!" She flapped her wings a couple of times, and retreated to the far back of the cave. "I don't think he can manage to get in here, of course. Just stay to the back of the cave." When Dark continued to stare, Shattering leapt to him quickly, growled very fiercly, "Get back!" He finally retreated.

"Don't try to protect them, my dear," the gray dragon scowled. "Just hand them over!" The black griffoness snapped her beak at the gray dragon's mighty toes. He just attempted to get her out of the way and perhaps try to sneak his way to the young dragons. But everything he tried, never worked. Shattering always kept him well hard back with snapping her beak over his toes.

"Fine!" he shouted. "Then I'll just rip this whole cave apart!" He lunged his whole body into the massive cave, completely blocking the entrance. He growled as he tried to worm his gargantuan bulk down into the middle of the cave. But his hind legs would never squeeze throught. He roared in anger as he attempted to thrash his hind legs into the cave. He always snapped at the black griffoness.

"Get back! He'll just trap himself. Griffons never get into caves without an exit. Follow me, young ones!" With that, Shattering lunged towards the back of the cave, and squeezed through an even narrower hole. The gray dragon noticed what they were doing, and he screeched in rage. He clawed at the sides of the cave to get in or out, but neither way worked. He was just stuck there.

"No! Get back here! I'll tear apart your whole cave into shreds!" He thrashed violently, but never could get anwhere past his thighs. "Ugh! I'll have to do it this way!" he growled under his breath. He wrenched his body around and snagged at the cave wall. The wall crumbled beneath his paws. He yanked one of his massive legs through the wall, than the over. Now he was entirely inside of the cave, surrounded by the dirt, that was quickly filling inside of it. "No!"

All the others were okay. As the den began to fall on top of him, they were all climbing out of the cave. As Cynder was about to speak, the ground rumbled violently. The gray dragon's paw revealed itself from the earth, and he began to climb his way up and out of the hole. As soon as his whole head managed to break free, his eyes landed right on top of the trio.

"Run!" screamed Shattering, as she bolted to the end of the hill and beat her wings to reach to the sky. The others all did the same and were pounding their wings constantly to catch up to the griffon. The gray dragon was still thrashing mad. His whole body escaped the cave, and he was soon lumbering outside of it. The unravishing sight caught Cynder's blue eyes.

The gray dragon was a much faster flyier than any of them. Then would have to turn around and fight. "Let's fight him!" yelped Cynder as she stopped mid-flight and turned towards the gray dragon, who was flapping his wings beside them calmly, although his eyes burned mad of a horrible rage and power, the power of being able to smash the little dragons flat with a paw.

They all wheeled around to face the beast. "This is it!" scowled the black griffoness. "You're journey ends here, now!" She braced herself for mortal combat, as did the others. They all were preparing for a massive flap of their wings to spring forward to the gray dragon and get him to the ground, corner him, and kill him. The task would be easy. But not if he were that powerful.

Spyro was the first to go. He sprang at the massive dragon and attempted to grab his wings. The massive gray dragon flung a paw at Spyro, and barely missed him. Spyro swooped down swiftly towards the dragons thigh, and snapped down on him like a venus fly trap. As the gray dragon was distracted, Cynder and Poison went for his wings, and began to nip them. He roared in anger.

The last three remaining dragons went for the troat. Icy turned left to attack. Dark turned right to attack. Shattering went straight. They would each attack the neck at once. As Spyro annoyed the beast, Cynder and Poison unnoticedly began to make them sink, the three dragons yanked at the neck. The dragon immediately felt their teeth sinking into his sensitive neck. In one attempt was able to get Icy off.

Icy swerved in flight for a few seconds, before she went back down to lunge. She grasped onto his neck, firmer than the first time. "Hang...On!" gasped the black griffoness as she clutched the neck of the dragon. They began to swerve faster to the ground, thanks to Cynder and Poison. As Spyro ducked and swooped from the dragon's reach, he easily snapped at his paws, legs, and hind legs.

Cynder could not really keep her grip on the dragon for that much longer. He was still beating his wings quickly, and it was hard to even grasp onto him. Spyro was beginning to get a bit more tired. Cynder shot poison at the gray dragon, and his wings were squirming more than before. But Cynder did not want to let all the others down. She continued to have a firm grip on the dragon's wings.

Spyro blasted fire at the dragon's legs and feet. The dragon screamed in rage. He flung a paw in the wrong direction, and Spyro whirred out from underneath him. Cynder gasped and noticed Spyro. Now the purple dragon was out of the way, he went to the dragons that were making them sink further in the sky and closer to the ground. Cynder gasped, and realized how close they were to the ground at that point. "Let go!" Cynder shouted.

"No!" Poison gasped. "We need to get back Spyro so he can distract this beast!" She began to bite down harder, as Cynder continued to glance down nervously. She kept her grip firmly though. She would listen to the poison dragoness, no matter how badly she wanted to let go of the gray dragon. She squeezed her eyes tightly shut as they spiraled towards the floor.

Dark began to breathe hot plasma on the dragon's sensitive neck scales. The dragon writhed in pain, and grabbed the dark dragon and flung him from his neck. He spiraled away, as did Spyro. Unaware of his absense, Shattering kept her firm even tighter than before. She would not ruin this chance of winning. She closed her eyes just like Cynder did, and they finally hit the ground.

The dragon was the first to hit the ground. As the rocks and trees crumbled underneath him, Cynder and Poison detached themselves from the wings and landed in a nearby tree. "Well..." Cynder gasped, "he's gone." She looked over at Poison who was staring wild-eyed at the dragon who wad dead. She saw Icy and Shattering fly over to the same tree. But Dark nor Spyro were there. They had disappeared.

"Where's Spyro? Where's Dark?" Poison leapt off the branch and caught towards flight. "I can't see then anywhere."

"Uh...Neither can I." Cynder flapped her wings.

"Hmm we need to find them." Poison searched the woods. Then she glanced down the dragon.

"Let's go. C'mon," Shattering said. "We'll find them."

* * *

They all began descent towards the trees. "Spyro! Dark!" Shattering called out to her new friends. Along with Icy, Cynder, and Poison. That's when Cynder tried to help out the mood with a small fart joke. It started when the three others were still shouting out for the others. They were flying, walking, and glancing in the treetops, and Cynder let out her crummy joke.

"Girls. We're girls right? Look how responsible we are. And look at the boys. Look how irresponsible _they_ are!" Cynder uttered a small laugh. The others were still deadly silent as they walked on through the trees, calling out their names. But one of them did notice Cynder's fart joke. Poison. She pretended not to hear it, but as the joke drummed inside of her ears she couldn't help it.

"Hahahaha!" she choked, laughing out horrible words. "Good one, Cyn!"

"Uh, yeah. And let's not forget to mention about how they're always saying they're so strong and responsible for everything!"

"Yeah!" Now it was Icy choking on her tounge.

"Oh, and let's think about this. Those two are especially bragging on and on about how they can protect us!"

Shattering fell down on her haunches and began to laugh and choke just like the others.

And Cynder joined them.

OoOoOooOoOoOOo

"My head..." murmured the purple dragon. He was lying down, with his wings covering his body. He had landed on the trees, with the ferns covering his purple scales.

He sat up. Where were the others? He had only remembered being shoved off of the gray dragon with his massive paws. He was flung into this tree and...Passed out? Was the gray dragon dead? Was everyone alright? Spyro climbed to his feet and took a glance around his surroundings. He'd definitely fallen into the thick branches of an odd looking tree. With a sigh, Spyro thought that he was probably the only one that had fallen off the gray dragon.

Spyro climbed from the nettles and took flight. Although his wings stung in the most horrible way, and his eyes were dreary from sleeping, he still had the little energy most dragons had to fly. With a long yawn, he flapped his wings a couple of times to stay in the air. He had to find the others. They were worried about him, he was worried about them. Had the massive dragon fended them all off too? Could he even be the only survivor?

Spyro growled a bit, then noticed the well torn-off trees. He blinked his eyes irately, before he glided down next to the body of the dragon. It was dead, alright. With a gasp, Spyro stumbled backwards. Not one of the other dragons were there! He would have to and find them, if they hadn't been taken or worse, killed. Spyro wouldn't know what to do if his most trusted friends were killed.

Spyro took flight again. Maybe they had gone to look for him? The purple dragon searched the trees, but they were no where to be seen. The dragon sighed, before he flew down towards the earth to go search for them. He landed on the hard ground, which had a few varieties of different floorings. Wood, rock, earth, snow? The purple dragon could make out all of those materials.

"Hmm...The area this way looks as though they could've come by here." Spyro raced along the trail. He had to find his friends. They could be worried. If they were dead, then Spyro would at least have wanted to see their bodies. And if...Oh no! Cynder! She never got the dinner that they asked for. As Spyro began to think about the things that he and Cynder planned, his eyes began to well with tears.

"No! Cynder! Please be alive!" he screeched in the brightness of the oncoming dawn. With a glance behind his shoulder, the purple dragon hung his head low. His mate, Cynder, could have been dead. He gasped. Cynder...Oh no. He had to find them. Dead or alive. They were out there. "Hello? D-dark? Shattering? I-icy? Poison? C-c-cynder?" he called. "Where are you? Hello?"

He fell down to his legs. That's when a rustle came from the nearby ferns. Spyro looked up. And Dark was standing up, legs twisted in confusion. "Spyro? Oh, am I glad to see you!" he chuckled. "I was worried that everyone left without me. You were kicked off of the beastie. Eventually I was gone too. Hehe, I fell down beside the beast, with no energy to get yell or move. I saw them leave. Follow me!" With that, the black dragon darted. Spyro followed him.

Spyro grazed across the landscape with Dark. They would have to find all of the others. Dark was much larger and faster than Spyro was, although the purple dragon could fly just as quickly. As they neared the group, the more worried that the group got. They all crashed through the ferns, in a daring attempt to find their friends. Dark and Spyro raced down their trail.

"Well...Look. There they are." Dark pointed to them with a claw. "We should sneak up behind them. Yeah? How does that sound?"

Spyro nodded his head grimly. "Let's go!" Spyro raced along the trail. "On my mark, okay, Dark? On my mark, get set, mark!" The two dragons tackled one of their choice. Spyro tackled Cynder, Dark tackled Poison. The two dragonesses gasped as they fell down towards the floor and were being pushed towards the ground. Cynder looked into the purple eyes of Spyro. Poison glanced into the handsome pale olive eyes of Dark.

"Hey, Poison," he grumbled. "We're glad that we found you guys. We could've gotten lost without your trail of the parted ferns. That really uh...Stuck out." The black dragon could only spare one quick laugh before Icy and Shattering stepped out of the ferns. She noticed the two dragons and dragonesses on the floor. Icy widened her eyes and raced to greet the two dragons. Shattering nodded her head.

"Very well. I was worried about you guys, before we could even utter, 'Good riddance!'" She let out a low chuckle. "Come on, you pesky dragons. We have lots of work ahead of us. Such as getting you dragons back to the city. How long have to said you been gone? Three to four days? Well, that was yesterday. You've been gone for almost a week, now, that right?"

"You mean, we're going to the city?" asked Dark, climbing off Poison and padding over to his friendly mentor. "Poison made that place sound so amazing. All these wonderful pictures that litter the walls of the city. I'd be really happy if you brought me there with them, right?" He stared at Shattering, who's beautiful beige eyes glistened through the dawn's musty haze.

"Of course, we're going to let you come. Come along now, young dragons, we've a long journey ahead of us." She beat her wings to look towards the sky. "Why, I don't even see the city in sight ahead of us. We really do have a long journey ahead of us." The black griffon sighed. "Come then, young dragons. We're going to start this way. I remember these woods from a while back. The city is this way."

The black griffoness beat her wings towards the direction she pointed to. "Oh my. Poison, is the city really that wonderful?" Dark asked her. "All those wonderful walls that you described? The tower of the Guardians? Is that really all there?" Poison nodded. As they flew silently, Dark for more questions. "Is there more to the Dragon City? Can you tell me more?"

"Of course I can, Dark," the poison dragoness said cheerfully. "Why, I forgot to mention the graveyard of course. And the celebration place. They're so...So...Wonderful! The graveyard is full of dragons that were born a long time ago. The dragons there were old and knew many things. They buried only the powerful ones. They never buried rouge elders inside of the graveyard."

"The only rouge elder ever to be buried was Zatach the Great. Zatach was born a rouge. The rouge never seemed to be too full of himself. He noticed the city. The city back then was not as beautiful as you might have found it today. But back then, for dragon eyes, it was wonder. The rouge Zatach had seen many things. Learned lots of wisdom from the journeys he went on."

"Why, Zatach wanted to go to the city. But rouges weren't respected that much a long time ago. Zatach disguised himself as a traveller. The elderly rouge-traveller was aloud to get into the city, and spread his journeys to the hatchlings. The hatchlings all told their parents of the great rouge-traveller and the stories and wisdom that he taught them. Their parents would usually want to speak with Zatach."

"Zatach spoke of wisdom towards the dragons. Even the young hatchlings' parents came to the lessons that Zatach told. Zatach, since he was not that old, but still ranked elderly, saw a beautiful dragon around his age. He fell in love with her. But his indentity came out one morning when he went to see her. You know how rouges are born, and they need a mark on their shoulder? The robes fell of Zatach, and revealed the marking."

"The young dragon he fell in love with was so surprised. She attempted to kill Zatach. But the Guardians of the city felt not to. The Fire Guardian, Lurrelis saw a greatness inside of Zatach. Zatach was immediately let into the city whenever he showed himself. He went on for a couple more years before he eventually died. He had spoken of many good ideas to the city. They listened to every one. They were all sad when Zatach died."

"Zatach was then buried in with the powerful dragons of the city. Why, even when Zatach was dead, he never felt more at home in his life. He never had children with any dragon. He never had the time to raise a family. He lived a very long and adventurous life he did. Good dragon, was Zatach. Although, even when at the dragon city, he still had many people that tried to raid him, dragons and other beasts that envied him."

"Wow...I wonder how it must've felt to be Zatach, huh?" asked Dark to Poison.

"Yeah. Must've been pretty well though?" she replied. Dark nodded.

"I'm not a rouge. Just an outsider." Dark sighed.

"There's nothing wrong with outsiders, Dark," Poison reassured him.

"I know. I just wish I lived in the city like you guys did," he muttered.

"Did? No, Dark. We still do live in the city. And you can stay if you want."

"Really? That'd be great!" And with that, the two dragons flew on with silence.

Towards the dawn.

Towards the city that they loved.

* * *

"Alright!" Shattering shouted as she swooped through the trees. "It's time to stop here! Get yourself unpacked." She motioned towards the young dragons.

Cynder landed down on the rocky terrain next to Spyro. He set down his Lava Armor and smirked at her. She smirked back.

"Well, Spyro. We're headed back to the City, huh?" she asked him.

"Yeah...It will sure be good to be home." Spyro unpacked his other things.

"You've the armor still? I have the necklace. I'll never lose it, you know?" the black dragoness murmured to her mate.

"Yeah. Hey, Spyro. Do you you think, Poison and Dark like each other? They hang out a lot."

"Uh huh. They sure do." Spyro set down his last item. His lava gem. He set it down inside of the Lava Armor. "Hey, Cynder, we're probably going to need some food. Want to come hunting with me?" He motioned towards the forest. "It'll be fun! I'll go ask Shattering if we can go hunting." He scrambled over the rocky terrain, and reached his destination. Shattering looked down at him.

"Can we go hunting, Shattering?" he asked the black griffoness. She nodded a few times, then Spyro bolted right back beside Cynder. "She said we could go. Over here looks quite nice." Spyro flapped his golden wings a few times and landed down beside the river. "Does anyone fancy fish?" he asked her, as he scooped one of the flippery objects out of the water and plopped it down beside her.

"Hmm...I'm sure that one of them do. Catch those first. I'll try to hunt for some of them." The black dragoness swooped down into the water and caught one of the slippery fish. "See?" she asked them as she plopped it down beside herself. Spyro only smirked, before he began to search for more fish. They finally managed to scoop out enough fish. The two turned towards the deeper angle of the forest.

"This way!" Spyro chuckled. Cynder followed him. They tagged along in the forest, hunting the most things they could find that was edible. Spyro and Cynder brought it back to their small campsite where the others were waiting for them. Spyro laid down his much larger meals than the ones that Cynder caught. Although Cynder rolled his eyes at him and stormed passed him.

"Finally. Our heros return!" chuckled Icy as she raced down towards them and snatched the fish from the pile. Shattering took a boar. Dark took a pig. Poison took a mallard. Cynder took a squirrel. Spyro took a sheep. They all raced down to where they wanted to eat. Spyro and Cynder were the very first to finish. Then they went to stretch their legs in a thick clump of grass.

"Yum!" chuckled Dark as he swallowed the last bit of pig that he had. "That was a very nice catch, Spyro!" He shook of his scales. "Now I think I'm going to have a sip in that stream over there to wash it all down hmm?" And with that, slid from his spot and waddled over towards the river that was sploshing it's wonderful waves down the rocks that were surrounding it.

With a yawn, Spyro and Cynder decided to go to sleep that night. Cynder closed her eyes a walked into a wonderful dream.

_There was a meadow. A nice, shining meadow. The sun carressed down the side of the meadow. The flowers that grew there made the place shine with bright colors. Cynder closed her eyes to breathe in the warmth that she felt there. There seemed to be no place better than that of the meadow she was dancing around in at that point. Nothing more peaceful. Nothing more safe._

_A voice quivered at the back of Cynder's eardrums. The black dragoness opened her eyes. Standing in front of her was a mysterious electricity dragoness. It was her old best friend. Talloness. "Hello, Cynder," whispered Talloness as she swooped around her friend. Cynder took in the sight of the dancing dragoness around her. Cynder blinked a few times and smiled, remembering the wondeful times she had with this dragoness._

_"You're doing well, Cynder. Very well..." The wonderful voice faded, and the world crept back to Cynder._

"Morning, Cyn," whispered Spyro, as he handed her over a delicious-looking squirrel.

"Morning, Spyro," she whispered back, as she took the squirrel and chomped on it.

"Okie dokie, time to pack up again!" Shattering grumbled. All of the dragons and griffons picked up their packs and flew.

Spyro and Cynder flew together. Icy and Shattering flew together. Poison and Dark flew together. All friends. Flying back.

Flying back to the only world they knew.

* * *

Meanwhile, Flame and Ember were watching the coast of the Dragon City. They were both fixed on with armor. Flame was leading a group of dragons towards the sides of the city, and Ember made her group follow them. Flame and Ember were keeping a close eye out for the dragons that were missing. She padded over towards the walls that guarded the city and peered down at it.

"When will we find them?" asked Ember and she walked over towards Flame and gazed up at his red eyes. The fire dragon just sighed and shook his head. The fire dragoness only nodded before slinking back to her group and ordering them to get back to the wall. They all listened to her and began to march down the path. Ember followed them and walked back towards them.

Flame continued to stare at the land before him. Spyro, one of his best friends yet one of his worst enemies was out there. Flame squeezed his eyes tightly shut. He didn't know what he would do without Spyro. For al he cared, they could all be out there, getting maimed by one of the horrible creatures of the world. Flame knew Spyro wouldn't just fly off without telling the city.

Flame told his group to get back to their positions. This one-day election meant that he had to order some other dragons his size around. The most lame job ever. He and Ember were the fifth group to ever look for them. Yet all of these young adults wondered why they were the ones watching for the five missing dragons. If they could not seek them soon enough, they would even ask the cheetahs for help.

Ember glanced down at the wall. The last time she saw Spyro was in an agruement with Grevil, the white telekinesis dragon. No one knew what that little trouble-maker was up to. Ember only sighed. She ordered her group to scout the further wall. She looked up towards the sky. "Please come home, Spyro. Please come soon." She closed her eyes and hoped the purple dragon would come back to the city.

Once their small coast patrol was done, the two groups headed back down towards the center of the city. Ember dropped off her armor at the smithy, as did Flame. The two dragons went to go see Cyril, Voulteer, and Terrador to tell them the report. The two young dragons sat down on the carpet of the Tower of the Guardians. Ember explained her report first.

"There was nothing out there, at all. Probably could not even see a beetle stirring!" she growled. Flame couldn't help but smirk at that last remark. Ember just rolled her eyes and looked at the Guardians, all three of them before her. Terrador nodded his head at the young fire dragoness. She only smirked before looking to Flame to see what he had to say about it.

"Nothing. Other than a cheetah that was going hunting, anyway." The flame dragon scratched at the spot behind his horns. He only gave a smirk before laying down on his legs. The Guardians all nodded at him. Flame leapt to his legs and pranced in circles. Then the two young dragons opened the door towards the Guardians' room and vanished down the hallway.

"Let's hope they're back by the next Saturday?" asked Cyril. "I mean, after all, Spyro and Cynder won't be gone long. Unless they planned to leave us during Trading Day." The ice dragon laughed. Before he countined. "But I highly doubt it. They brought three other young dragonesses with them." Cyril then padded over to his small bed on the floor and curled up inside it.

"Agreed," said Terrador, standing to his legs and turning around. "They've never let us down before." And with that, all the guardians all seperated to go to sleep on the beds that have comforted them for so long.

**Hello! I hope that you enjoyed this daring chapter! I hope that you had as much fun reading it as I did writing it. Yes, this chapter did take a few days. A nice 7,000 worded chapter. Stick around for the 7th chapter, which will be updated in a few days time. I will be continuing this rate of words. I hope that you enjoyed this chapter, again. Happy reading! XD**


	7. Chapter 7

**Back with another chapter, readers! :3 I have really been looking forward to give this story a good finishing. Like I'm 7/33 way through with this. It's coming along nicely. Well, if you're reading this notes up here, I'm just going to tell you this chapter is going to be a little bit different than most of the chapters that you've been reading. It's just on the villain's side. Well, that's all I have to tell you today! Enjoy chapter 7.**

**7**

The hollow screech of an eagle sounded throughout the darkness of the cavern. The eerie black of the abyss crept further down into the center of the world. The stone stalagmites that glistened on the walls of the abyss hung there silent. Navy shapes slunk around the stalagmites, grabbing any animal that wasn't one of them and eating it. The creatures were nearly starved, their ribs lay visible to everyone.

One of the navy creatures, a bone-thin dragon, looked down at the crippling world before him. The stone stalagmite had been there for many years before. When he was just a hatchling his mother and father, who were now dead, would used to bring him up to this very same stalagmite. The stalagmites showed the lives of the dragons, and which dragon used the shard-like rocks.

Muttering an old spell that he learned from a wizard, the navy dragon slumped onto his behind and dragged a long claw across the dust of stalagmite. At that moment, a whirl of red swooped by the navy dragon. The bone-thin beast looked down, to see the dragoness, Amaria, landing on the heavy stones of the abyss. She grumbled something under her breath, something about lousy hatchlings.

She disappeared to the main chamber of the abyss. With a crooked look, the navy dragon got to his wings, and glided down towards the bottom of the chamber. The massive room filled his eyes. It was so big, the darkness had it completely surrounded in it's mystic glow. The navy dragon sighed before pulling himself towards the side of the abyss, and felt for the rock that he lived underneath.

The navy dragon yanked on the rock, and it easily slid apart for him. The navy dragon ducked underneath the corridor of rock overhead, one that dragons like himself loved to crawl inside of and snatch the rock rats that scuddled around inside of it. However, the shortage of food was making a great disadvantage. The enemy, the purple dragon and his friends, had escaped the keep.

As Amaria slid inside of the main chamber, where the Level One Class Navy Dragons like himself weren't allowed to go into, he curled up behind his rock, his cavern that he lived inside of. The ever-thick darkness of the abyss stung his eyes. Rock dust flew off the cave's massive walls, and sprinkling the golden eyes of the passing-by dragons and dragonesses. The cavern did not have many dragonesses.

The navy dragon wanted to know what was going on. As he slid to his feet from his short-lived sleep, he scuddled across the cavern and walked into the main chamber. Being a Level One Class Navy Dragon meant that he couldn't. The guards that were guarding the entrance of the main chamber noticed the little navy trying to break an entry. The larger navy dragon, the highest class, Level Five Class Navy Dragons, growled a bit.

"What do you think you're doing?" he snarled, baring his six-inch long fangs at the smaller navy dragon. "Level One Class Dragons are not allowed in the main chamber, unless you have a very important message to the King." The larger navy dragon peered down at the Level One Class. "What is it that you want?" The Level One Class navy dragon stopped his attempt to break an entry.

"I am Tulik, Sir! With a message to His Majesty! If I would be allowed to get through here, I would be extremely grateful!" As he made the last sentence, he finished it off with a bow. Then he looked up at the Level Five Class, who was named Loki. Loki glared down at Tulik. If this Level One Class was lying, Loki would get in serious matters. Loki kneeled down to stare at Tulik.

"If I let you pass, and you've lied to me, I will personally rip you apart!" With that, the navy dragon Loki opened the main passage towards the centre of the keep. The little Level One Class nodded his head quickly, and scrambled inside of the little passage. That was a close one! He would have to make up a good excuse for being let inside of the main passage. He did not want to be torn apart, _personally,_ by the massive Loki.

Tulik felt the tunnel squeeze narrower. How could Amaria tolerate this tunnel? With a growl, he leapt towards the end and squeezed through the tunnel. Now there was a huge opening, where Level Two, Level Three, Level Four, and Level Five dragons stood. The Level One. The only kind of dragon that wasn't respected. Or let into the main chamber. There were so many dragons in the chamber.

Tulik walked across the main chamber. He felt the eyes of many dragons glaring at him, suspicious and wary. He cowered down inside of the chamber, and he scurried towards the main chamber. The eyes of the dragons left him. A line of visitors had already crawled it's way around the throne way. Tulik sat at the end of the line. More dragons had already packed up behind him, making the line even longer.

As he dragons left, Amaria was the first in the line now. It was very easy to tell what the dragons inside of the keep were saying. Yes, it was dark. But that didn't mean that the dragons were deaf. As Amaria stepped inside of the throne room, the King, Perlong, looked up at her. An evil grin spread rapidly across his face. Was he expecting good or bad news? The darkness hid the grin.

"Hello, Amaria. I see that you have found our little beasts?" Perlong asked her.

"Uh...A slight problem, Sir..." she began quietly.

"Yes, Amaria?" he asked quietly.

"They...Got...Away..." she began slowly.

"_What? _How _dare_ you let them get away!" The black dragon Perlong hit her upside the head.

"I'm sorry, Sir. I will go and look for them right away. I'll send Loki and Burr with me. Renegade and Duchess will take their places." She made a dip of her head before she backed away from the throne room.

Now that the Tulik heard what he wanted to, he spread his wings and left the line. The dragons behind him roared in anger that he had left the line. He waited for Amaria to grab Loki and the other dragon, Burr. As she did that, she was caught up in a silent arguement.

"No, Ma'am. We're not leaving these positions." Loki was speaking. "We were assigned to stay right here. We're not moving. Unless you had His Majesty's permission to let us leave this encampment and help you find what you seek." The navy dragon let his golden eyes fix on her vibrant green ones.

"Of course I had his permission, you elegant fools! Now get off your duty stand or I will drag your bloody corpses with me! And I will make you hit every rock on the way there!" That section of the cavern was ever quiet. The dragon Loki, with a face of fear, nodded his head a few times before slinking towards Amaria. Burr was about to disagree, but only imagining what that torture would be like, slipped over.

"Good," she growled. "Now get your wings ready for a fly, you two." With that, a screech, she flapped her wings to the top of the cavern. Tulik sighed. Would he be in this horrible abyss forever? Would he never be able to see the light? As a silent tear slid down his cheek, he slunk back towards his rock and moved it. He curled his wings up to slide his way inside of it.

As night dawned inside of the keep, with all of the guards away, maybe this fellow here might be able to get a good look at the world around him. No one seemed to notice him. They probably would not even know he was gone. The young Tulik flapped his wings and left his cave. Towards the top of the abyss. Where all of his questions that he had been dying to ask would be answered.

When his body came over the top of the hole, light circled him. Not sunlight. Moonlight. The wonderful white glow of the moon made his body feel whole. He let the moonlight take him places. His wings, which were hardly ever used, opened. His eyes flashed open. Instead of their normal golden, they flashed a deadly cyan blue. His whole body turned into bright apricot color.

His fangs became the ever most longer. His claws, once white and stubby, were now black and quite long. His horns stuck out longer than before. His tail blade was longer. His wings were now dark black. He had completely changed! He looked at his newer version of himself. Did this mean he was out of the abyss, and able to do whatever he wanted? Or did this happen to all navy dragons that left the abyss?

The apricot colored beast looked at the abyss. All those navy dragons down there were going to be down there forever, probably. But now, he was freed. The dragon looked up at the sky that was dancing overhead of him. He never felt more at home. With a dark chuckle, the dragon Tulik would be leaving the abyss forever. He would get revenge on them one day. Perhaps he sould have gone somewhere?

Tulik beat his wings towards the direction of the dragon city. Yes, it would be a long fly. But the trip would be worth it. He was tired of getting pushed around inside of the abyss. But maybe, at the City, he would be free, free to do whatever he wanted. Yes, his elemental power was common - fire. But that was the dragon's last concern. He was going to be freed!

He let the wind and moon roll him around. His wing tips touched the air softly. He would be gone from that miserable life. Would the dragons of the city respect the apricot colored dragon? All these thoughts flowed through his mind as he lightly pushed his tail down, and lifted his wings up higher. He wanted to reach the stars that circled him. He wanted to be up there in the sky.

All of his miserable days in the abyss were over. He was starting a new life now. No more constant darkness. No more unnerving guards to babble at you. Just him, the sky, and the moon. Now his best friends. They would be beside him forever. Tulik just had to make sure he wouldn't get seen by the dragon Amaria, Loki, and Burr. But...Would they even know it was him? He was completely different now.

The apricot dragon lifted his wings up towards the sky and let his eyes close. The darkness was gone from his heart. He let the wind flush back his scales. Why, he felt ever so powerful with the wind beside him. He was definitely going to get revenge on that camp of dragons, that had lied to him all his life. The camp of dragons that he had been stuck with all his life.

So many things have happened to him. His childhood was miserable. Now with his parents and brother gone, his adulthood was even worse. His mother was killed by the King, Perlong. His father was slain by Loki and Burr. His brother attempted to free himself from the abyss, and was caught. Eventually, he was put inside of the prison cellar, and was slain by the red dragoness, Amaria.

He would make it to the world, the one where he would be respected. He would meet the purple dragon, and save his life when he needed to. There would be nothing that the apricot dragon would not do for Spyro. Even though he had no clue where the purple dragon was. Was he at the city? He would start by looking there. The apricot would begin his search.

When he arrived at the Dragon City.

* * *

"Of course not, fools!" snapped Amaria. "I can sense them. They have come this way." She flapped her wings higher towards the rising moon. "Hmm..." She looked at her partners. The now green dragon, Loki, and the now root-colored dragon, Burr. They all glanced down at the world below them. "Follow me! I can also sense this - death. The death smell of something nearby!"

She took off towards the trees. Loki sniffed the air. It definitely had the scent of death creeeping along it. The green dragon flapped his wings and glided after the red dragoness. Of course, she had led them to whatever she had smelled - a massive gray dragon. When she inspected the wounds, there were two nicks on the wings, one that was snapping at his paws. Three wounds in the neck.

"Wow. What could have taken down this monster?" asked Burr and she slid down the ravine that left the creatures body hanging about. She sniffed it. "A griffon, maybe? And...Five dragons?" Letting out a low chuckle, she ran a long claw along the scales of the beast. It was no longer alive, but the three dragons were worried it might spring awake at amy moment.

"Well, had better not touch it. It could still be alive," Loki explained. "After all, only six smaller animals were taking this thing on. It's bound to be alive." He sniffed at one spot on the wing. "Two splats of poison? Two poison dragons must've infected his wings, to the point he could no longer flap those things and actually stay in the air!" He gave the beast a small touch, even when he said not to.

"We need to find out what killed it," growled Amaria. "It could be that purple dragon and his friends!" Snarling, she went to go sniff the parted ferns that were before her. With a gasp, she started to bolt down the tiny trail. Surprised, Loki and Burr took off after the red dragoness. Soon enough, the scent of fresh caught food and fish filled their nostrils. Burr took a step back.

"Gross!" she gasped. "Only disgusting ice dragonesses eat the stinky remains of fish." She touched her claws to her nose and acted like she was about to puke. But Amaria paid her no heed and continued to search the body. She sniffed at the fish and wrinkled her nose. It was a disgusting smell that met her. Of ice dragonesses and smelly, rotting fish! Amaria scowled and kicked over the fish's rotten corpse.

Loki scowled too. There were all kinds of lunches that were scattered beyond him. All of them were mostly rotten and half-eaten. Some of them were even fully eaten. A lot of beasts must have made a rest stop there. There were many different scents. Some of them were familair smells, although some of them were horrible, disgusting ones! Loki made a choking sound.

"They must have ridden the air. We can't track them down from this point," remarked Amaria. "We need to get back to the camp, and make sure none of our dragons leave. If they do, we will hunt them down. You understand?" The two dragons nodded. "Good. Now, Burr, lead the way!" The brown dragoness nodded her head and took to flight. The others followed her.

* * *

"You're an interesting beast, aren't you? Apricot and all. I thought you were probably extinct by now. Hunters love your peachy scales." The River Snake smirked at the dragon. "All land beasts, not including you dragons, are all afraid of me. I am The River Snake. And I will help you." The River Snake bowed her massive yellow head at the dragon. "Us snakes...We're helpful that way."

"That would be very kind of you. I have nearly spent my entire life walking around inside of this huge abyss. The walls are so massive that you can't even seen the top of it. If I were you, don't go there." Tulik gave a low chuckle. His wings were sore from all of the flying. He had stopped down at this stream for a rest and met the River Snake. She was a very big snake, anyway. Maybe she would be of help?

"Me? Out of water? Nonsense, young dragon friend. I would never dream of getting outside of my river here. It protects me from all of the things bigger than me. Like hawks and eagles. They all love to prey on the river snakes. But not The River Snake. That's me." She gave a smile before whirling her head back to the dragon who was sitting down in front of her.

"They don't? Are you larger that most river snakes? Let alone normal snakes that slither here and there?" The apricot dragon peered down at the massive yellow snake. She shook her head side to side. She was a very large snake. And majestic too. If he had scales like that, he would be very happy. The River Snake looked up at Tulik as she spoke of an old tale.

"They say, most river snakes are just snakes that enjoy the water. They love to swim, dance, and play inside of it. Until two big species of river snakes breeded. They came out with the largest snake in the world...The River Snake. The River Snake is immune to water, spit, and acids. On land, I am not immortal. I die quickly on land. I can't even leave the water realm around me, here."

"The very first River Snake was my father. He wanted lots of other River Snakes, so he breeded with most of the girls he could find. Not any of them had another River Snake. It was just destiny for River Snakes to be born. My father died, but he had bred with another kind of river snake. I was born, the very second River Snake. We live on and on for ages. But my father lived a few short years. He crawled on land way too much."

"I am waiting to be breeded with another massive river snake...So that the cycle can continue forever. I will live many generations. You dragons may live to centuries. But we are River Snakes. We can live as long as twelve dragon lives. When you die, I will still be an immature River Snake. And when I do become mature, I will be sure to have the next River Snake child."

The apricot dragon only made a forced smile. "Cool!" he applauded her. "Good luck finding that mate of yours." With that, he turned away from The River Snake. But she did not want her only visitor in centuries to leave her so quickly. She managed to get her yellow head on top of the land. She made her golden eyes breathe up at him. Perhaps this wonderful dragon could be her mate?

"One question, before you leave, Sir. Do you want to start The River Snake family?" she asked him.

"And become the father of a bunch of flying rats? I'll pass." With that, he walked away from the river, from the snake, from the area.

The apricot dragon dragged himself across the watery plains. He would reach the dragon city. He would save the dragon Spyro. He would be known around the City of the Dragons!With a roar, bolted across the marshes. He would be known! He would save many lives! He would be Tulik the Great!

* * *

"We need to get back to the camp now. King Perlong will not be happy of our schemes." Loke made a low bow of his head. "Perhaps we come back tommorow? And fine the scent trail of the purple dragon and his friends? He is getting protection from a group of a dragon and a griffon. We can smell it. I will lead the way." Loki dipped his head. Burr, who had made sure that the dragons had not escaped the camp, nodded, and followed after Loki.

So the three dragons extended their massive wings to head back over to the camp. The moon was slowly vanishing from the night sky. Amaria glanced behind her and sighed. She would probably never find the hatchlings. Who had escaped their camp, because of the purple dragon. They would so have to find new matierals to make the cages out of. Iron or wood was just not going to work.

Loki and Burr tended to stay towards the front of the formation. As they beat their wings majestically in the sky, Burr looked down at the trees and the lakes they were easily skimming by. It must have been so wondeful to be free. But she was being closely guarded by Amaria and King Perlong. There was no way that her or Loki would be able to escape the camp easily.

Burr looked at Amaria. The red dragoness was having a quiet time alone. She had a hard face planted on her head, and her green eyes glistened in the moon's shone. She was such a hard dragoness to follow, but her leadership skills were great. Better than that of King Perlong's leadership skills. The root-brown dragoness rolled her eyes, thinking of the black dragon Perlong.

Quisit made a much better leader indeed. But the old thing was helpless, much more helpless than King Perlong. Perlong was making sure he wasn't overfed and fat. He had many challenges for the throne. The still-fit Perlong would not hesitate. He would slash at the challenger's throat and they would lean over inside of the cave to die. And he would leave them there.

As the small band of dragons skirted the corridors of the wind, Loki led them further towards the camp. They noticed the abyss coming closer and closer in view. With a smirk, the green dragon tilted his left wing, side-plummeting towards the centre of the abyss. Into the Level One's chamber, where the pathetic dragons were staying, from birth, until they died.

Loki, Burr, and Amaria landed on the hard stones of the chamber, ruffling their wings and sharpening their claws on the hard-packed rocks and stones that lined the chamber. Burr and Loki looked at the entrance of the tunnel. Renegade and Duchess were standing there. Loki and Burr just shoved the two replacements aside and forced them back down the tunnel.

Amaria took a quick glance behind her, then tunneled into the passage, leading towards the main chamber, where she would make her report to the King. She padded along the dark stone chamber, and took a quick gulp. Perlong would not be pleased, at all, with what she had to say. She pushed aside the rock, which led towards the long line of the Throne Room.

There were already several dragons making a challenge, while some of the dragons brought him lunch to show their loyalty, some of them danced around to amuse him. Some of them asked for his help. Some of them polished his scales and claws. But not Amaria. She was walking in their with a report. With a swallow, she stepped inside of the throne room.

"Hello, Amaria. Please tell me that you have found them?" the black dragon asked her.

"Well, not exactly..." she began, slowly. "We're looking tommorow-"

"_Find them!"_ Perlong barked. "And if you don't-"

Another navy dragon stepped up towards the throne room. "His Majesty, we have a visitor. He says it is a hurry." He stepped aside, to let a tiny white dragon bounce into the room. The white dragon was wearing a Crystal of Power, probably to resemble the rarety of his elemental breath. The young beast stepped up to the throne room. He made a quick bow.

"Hello, Sir. I've come asking for your help." The little dragon lifted himself on his feet.

"What do you need help with?" asked the black dragon with a scowl.

"Helping me find the Hall of Echoes." The white dragon nodded fiercly.

"Why should I help you with that?" he asked.

"I will show you..." the white dragon said. "Just watch."

The little dragon turned towards an immense rock. As he focused more carefully, the object lifted itself from the ground, the white dragon flung his head sideways, the rock flew with the movement of his head, and cracked the side of the chamber. The rock's pebbles crumbled down beneath Amaria and Perlong's feet. Perlong looked up, interested. "Dragon, what is your name?"

"My name is...Grevil."

**Spooky, huh? Just wait until the next chapter. I'm just started this roller-coaster. Yuuup. :3 I hope that you have enjoyed the story so far. Write a review, blah blah blah. I'm trying my best to keep this story long and interesting. So stay tuned. I wrote this chapter as best as I could. I watched Despicable Me 2 so didn't really have to write.**


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